MP Michael Martin, Speaker of the Commons (a position analogous to the US Speaker of the House) has announced that he will resign on 21 June--IF he is allowed to stay in office that long it will be a surprise. The dodgy expenses scandal has already claimed other MPs on both sides of the aisle.
How deep is the corruption in Parliament? Join me on the other side of the fold...
Glasgow MP Michael Martin was supposed to be in charge of making sure MPs conduct themselves appropriately, inside and outside of the House of Commons. This included keeping his eyes and ears open for any whiff of scandal that might bring disrepute to Parliament.
Unfortunately, by all accounts the man was both an ass and a crony--never a good combination. When the dodgy expenses scandal was broken by the right-wing Telegraph newspaper, he basically shrugged it off.
Big mistake. And it has now cost him his position as Speaker and, soon, his MP status (he has announced he will not stand again, no doubt because he couldn't get elected dogcatcher at this point.)
I don't know whether there's been much coverage on the US news, but the scandal concerned is a real doozy, with both Labour and the Tories caught with their hands embedded deeply in the public purse.
MPs from outside London have historically been allowed to claim expenses for a second home, something of a holdover from the days when an MP from, say, Glasgow might have to travel for weeks to attend a sitting of Parliament. They can submit receipts for furnishing that home and for various services as long as these are relate to its official use. Alternatively, they could declare their London home as their main residence, and then claim these same sort of bennies for a second home in their constituency.
MPs are not hugely well paid, if the standard you are comparing their salaries to is that of top lawyers and corporate execs. Not that this matters, as most are either from wealthy backgrounds or have sidelines as company directors, consultants, lawyers and so on. Or both. But no doubt comparing the size of their pay packets to the rich people they regularly rub shoulders with makes them a bit green with envy. So it's no surprise that fiddling expenses has been a popular pastime.
Under Martin's regime, it appears that there was nothing you couldn't get away with. To start with, MPs were charging the public purse for anything and everything:
* porn videos (OK, that really was probably a mistake)
* light bulbs, and someone to come screw them in
* mega-wide-screen TVs
* sheets--16 sets of them (and right before that MP's retirement...)
* and in the case of one particularly obnoxious Tory, the cost of having his MOAT CLEANED
Worse, they were exploiting the first/second home rule. Need to have some repairs or want a new kitchen? Declare that home your second home, and it's covered--and now switch back again.
Most craven of all were the husband and wife, both Labour MPs, who each declared one residence a "second home."
Others tried to con the taxpayers by claiming costs for their parents' homes, a sister's home, and so on. One guy claimed on his London flat, then rented it to another young MP, who dutifully submitted a claim for the rent! At least one other kept claiming mortgage interest costs long after the mortgage was paid off.
Several are now in the sights of the taxman as well, for telling the government their main residence was X, but telling Internal Revenue it was Y, saving a bundle in fees when they sold property.
Their chicanery was revealed when someone--no one knows who just yet--went round to the tabloids offering an illicit copy of the expenses info. None of the tabs bit, and British journos are still a bit amazed that the Telegraph was the one to run with the story. Let's just say it's not exactly known for getting scoops. It probably paid quite a high price for the information, so it's been trickling the story out over several days. First Labour, then the Conservatives, then the Lib Dems (who came out looking rather clean), and every day since new and even more scandalous details. Police are looking into how the info was leaked, and also looking into those allegations that shade into tax fraud or outright fraud. There appear to be several that do, and it is likely that a few people may be arrested in due time. It is even more likely that several more than already have done so will be forced to step down, or risk being trounced.
The result is that public trust in Parliament, already just about as low as it can go considering the disastrous state of the economy, has fallen through the floor and kept right on going. Unemployment has officially passed 2 million here; the reality is considerably higher as we already had a vast number of people on long-term unemployment or on disability benefits more because no jobs exist that they can do than because of the severity of their disability. Home repossessions and bankruptcies are also at a record high--and bankruptcy is a huge deal here as it means being permanently barred from certain professions and automatically considered suspect in others, you can never actually "wipe the slate clean." So let's just say this was a really bad time for MPs' reckless spending to be on public view, much less more serious offenses like fraud and deception.
"It's one law for us and another for them" is one resigned response. Those who react in this way are likely to be permanently disengaged from the political system.
There is also a worrying rise in exploitation of the scandal by noxious third parties, most prominently the racist, far-right BNP (British National Party, which includes elements of the old National Front) and the Euro-skeptic and ultra-conservative UKIP (UK Independence Party.) Unaccountably, UKIP was peddling its anti-immigrant rhetoric on my mostly-immigrant road just yesterday, with leaflets updated to scream about expense-fiddling MPs and "throw the bastards out" rhetoric. There is a real danger that the completely deserved impulse the throw the bastards out will give even worse bastards a chance to come in.
Gordon Brown has come out of this smelling like manure (another item that an MP expensed), and it has been speculated that in the 2009 European elections, which are right around the corner, Labour may come FOURTH.
David Cameron has been a smoother operator and handled the PR response better, even though his crew look just as bad as far as their scams go.
Both parties are getting a beating in the polls. And they deserve it. With a VERY few exceptions, they are a pathetic excuse for a government, and if we "subjects" were allowed a vote on it (we aren't) I have no doubt that the majority of the population would back a move to dissolve Parliament and call a new election immediately. Cameron's made a call for just that, thinking his party will pick up enough seats to form a government. That would be tragic, as they are even stupider and more craven than Labour on the issues, and just as lousy when it comes to filling their boots with taxpayer cash. Only the third parties seem likely to gain, and outside of the Lib Dems that prospect is even more worrying than the possibility of Cameron at No 10.