Mp's claiming 93 million in expenses.

Martinslovechild

beingjdc wrote: »

Are these expenses the ones that include staff costs? If so I'm not surprised most MPs claim close to the maximum - that'll account for 90% of it, and whatever argument we can have back and forth about housing allowances and so forth, an MP's staffing budget doesn't come anywhere close to covering what it would really cost to get the right staff to support an MP.

For most of them, that's the reason they end up employing family, it's not to give them a cushy job, a few bad apples excepted, it's because an MP's wife will put up with tuppence a fortnight to be a correspondence secretary / office manager / diary keeper / bag carrier if it means she gets to spend more time with her husband than the two nights a week he's in the constituency, and keep an eye on the flashy young interns he's taking on.

Similarly their policy and research staff tend to do the job for about 60% of the going rate, largely because of personal political ambitions and the prestige within that circle of having a job in Parliament, and because it's one of the easiest jobs in politics to combine with being politically active in your spare time, whereas for a lot of central or local government jobs that is frowned upon or in some cases completely banned.

Well, I guess that's alright then isn't it? We can all stop worrying now...

beingjdc

Martinslovechild wrote: »

Well, I guess that's alright then isn't it? We can all stop worrying now...

Clearly some of the stuff that's going on around housing and nannies and films hasn't been alright, but I'm not just pointing out the legitimate uses of expenses because it annoys me when people are wrong - it also damages the case of those who want to reduce MPs' illegitimate expenses if they can't make the distinction between the reasonable ones and the unreasonable ones, because it becomes harder for anyone to design a system which is both workable and effective, but can be expected to get the support of that side in the debate.

Plus, it makes them look ill-informed and puts them at risk of being ignored by those making the decisions, and listened to only by each other on internet fora, and the likes of me who clearly have more time than sense. The papers will whip them up, and some politicians will pander to them in public, but behind closed doors they'll declare that "those people will never be happy until politicians pay for the privilege, and then they'll call it corruption", and take no notice of them.