Gordon Brown has been criticised for dragging his feet over the current expenses embarrassment, but today the Labour party will lay down the rules for how to deal with MP’s that may have taken advantage of expenses or have just down right fiddled them. The last few weeks has seen many examples of questionable expense claims that have had the British vote furious that on the surface appears that MPs can get away with something normal employees would be at least sacked for and some cases a possible police record.
The current events have put normal political arguments on hold as honesty and moral issues have taken over policies. That has opened the doors for independent parties to market themselves on TV through the normal political information broadcast. Arguments that 74% of all political decisions that affect England are in fact made in Brussels and that Scotland have the best of both worlds with their independent assemblies. It seems that even though Scotland and Wales have their own parliament, England does not as it still represent all of the UK.
We all as voters wait for this to be sorted so we can look our MP’s in the face with a trustworthy respect even if we disagree with their political views.
Obama inherited a huge issue with the Taliban in Afghanistan and beyond. Although the reports that are coming back home is that the Americans are losing the war, just as the Russians and others before them it is inconceivable that we should pull out in defeat. This week saw Pakistan going to war with the Taliban in North East, this should be of some release of pressure of what was going to be an another war ground for the USA and possibly UK troops.
Pakistan had signed an agreement with Taliban not to go to war, providing they followed some specific rules and did not expand their territory, at the USA’s disapproval of negotiating at all with them. Of course they totally ignored the signing and not have almost taken over many areas of Pakistan. This week saw local troops going into battle with reports of 150,000 dead or wounded already.
Whether we believe those figures or not is irrelevant at this point, what is correct though is now Pakistan has also gone to war, which is good news for Washington. There will be hope of success and as it is predicted that Bin Laden is held up somewhere n Pakistan, the war may create unrest and challenge his position there in time.
Obama message was that everything cannot be achieved through fighting alone, there still needs to be some talking, to what level he was refereeing to is unsure. With the UK troops now officially finished in Iraq and more USA troops to be deployed in Afghanistan there could be some hope to turn things around.
There could ne nothing worse for a political party than have it s members either accused or suspected as taking their working expenses too far within a recession. With many workers in the UK and the world losing their jobs, it is hard to fathom how can these civil servants who work for the tax payer get away with the huge amount of expenses that they do. The reporting just does not go away and with the Prime minister forcing changes through parliament at lightning speed, you just can’t help thinking he knew what was coming.
The only release of pressure is that the conservatives are not throwing black stuff at them, because ultimately they know they are about to have their own expenses released to the world and they know, they are likely to have similar criticism. For those with an open mind, there is understanding that if you are forced to live away from home to serve the country, you should at lease not be out of pocket and be able to live near where you work and have a responsible lifestyle based on the hours and responsibility a politician would have. After all if you pay monkey nuts, you only get monkeys working for you and although many voters would think that is all they have anyway, most people want quality managers and servers working to make Britain a better place.
But when you see newspaper reports like the one today in the Daily Mail, you do find yourself questioning why anyone could think they could continue to claim for such expenses. Such items mentioned are
Chocolate Santa’s
Packet of Maltesers
Packets of Jaffa Cakes
Potato Peeler
Eyeliner
Piano Tuning
Sanitary Towels claim by male politicians.
Of course some of these claims may not be represented correctly by the press as food items could easily have been a working pack lunch rather than a sitting down lunch, but to the public explanation should be made. Also such claims to deal with a rat infection is being publicised, but why should a politician work in a rat infested home, if the house is the second home for business use.
The media are making a big song and dance about the issue with good reason, but some expenses are likely to be with good reason and so the confidence in the system has to be restored, so we know when unusual items like this are claimed for good reason.