It is never pleasant to see a human being caught like a rabbit in the media spotlight. Even if they are a politician
I remember Timothy Yeo in particular, caught by the pack of press hounds in the Back to Basics hunt
Now it is breaking the rules on expenses – surprise, surprise
Three things strike me:
Wendy Alexander, sadly, just proved by the manner of her going that she was really not up to the job in the small but vicious, Rankin-esque Edinburgh world
It is a strange system which makes it OK for an MP to claim expenses for a window cleaner or a gardener, but not for a nanny
The current system of MPs expenses does not strike me as corrupt, per se
It seems to have grown, Topsy like, to cope with:
the desire to make it possible for people from all walks of life & levels of income to be MPs
the recognition that MPs need an office of support staff if they are to do their job effectively
and the very modern demand that an MP should maintain a home in the constituency, at which they spend virtually all their time when their presence is not actually required at Westminster. Including every weekend
These aims would seem to make it a fond hope that one could draw up a set of rules, clearly understandable by all interested parties, defining allowable expenses
What might be fair for an old-fashioned married male MP with a wife & family to support might be a gravy train for a veteran husband & wife who are both also veteran MPs. But grossly unfair to a female MP who is the mother of young children
I do not remember any pursuit of Labour politicians during the Back to Basics death throes of the last Conservative government
And not because there were no comparable peccadilloes – somebody must have known about Robin Cooke, for example. The pursuit of these was just not part of the game
Which is why I wonder if David Cameron & the Conservatives may not have made a serious mistake by trying to position themselves as whiter than white on this issue
Cartoon by Castro
