MPs expenses - what a mess
WHAT a mess. A year after the expenses scandal first blew up, the stench lingers on.
It took newspaper journalists to shame Parliament into action, after years of doing nothing to deal with the expenses crisis.
Angry MPs first blasted the media for even daring to cover the story, but as public anger exploded, a major inquiry was launched.
Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the committee on standards in public life, called for a major overhaul.
But his proposals could be watered down by the new independent Parliament Standards Authority (IPSA) headed by Sir Ian Kennedy.
On top of that, Gordon Brown ordered former mandarin Sir Thomas Legg to audit MPs previous expenses.
His demands for big repayments and retrospective limits on expense claims provoked fury amongst MPs.
And now he is set to name and shame MPs on who has paid back cash and who haven't.
But on top of that, a senior judge has called that review into question, overturning Sir Thomas Legg's decisions.
Where does it leave us? Hopefully, the worst excesses are behind Parliament - although history teaches us to be wary.
But it is still a mess and may not reduce public anger.
Only a general election will have any chance of doing that.
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And now that the Director of Public Prosecutions feels he has enough evidence of criminality to charge a few of these `honourable members` over their expenses claims, they have the absolute bare faced nerve to say they should be treated under parliamentary priviledge rules!! Talk about abuse!
There should not be one rule for them and one for the rest of the herd.
Crime is crime, inside or outside parliament. If I`m reasonably suspected of crime after investigation, I`m charged and tried by my peers, quite rightly so. And so should they be.