Charging for the Manure and the Moat
Though it’s only just been gathering attention on this side of the pond, Britain has been buffeted by a widening scandal. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports:
Britain has been convulsed by a series of escalating revelations about the expenses claimed by members of Parliament.
A week or so ago, the Telegraph newspaper got its hands on some of the juiciest secrets in Britain — the dubious expenses claimed over the last few years by British politicians. The scale of the cupidity is astonishing. The evidence suggests that members of all parties — Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, even, most impressively, representatives of Sinn Fein, the Irish republican party whose members for years actually refused to take their seats because they didn’t recognize Westminster’s writ — have been bilking the system for all they’re worth.
The scandal threatens to be as corrosive as anything seen in Britain in decades — this is not just about a party abusing power; it threatens to undermine the public’s remaining faith in the probity, not just of politicians, but of Parliament itself.
And the estimable John Burns writes in today’s New York Times:
Much of the public anger has been driven by the notion that lawmakers have been exploiting the expense rules to obtain luxuries beyond the pockets of many Britons; Mr. Malik, for instance, entered a claim for a $3,200 flat-screen television, and protested in the name of “natural justice” when House of Commons officials reimbursed him for only one-third of the cost.
Class differences have also played a role in the public reaction. In what has amounted to a caricature of what many thought to be a bygone Britain, wealthy Conservatives have put in claims for shipments of horse manure, a new chandelier, repair of piping under a tennis court and, in the case of Douglas Hogg, a viscount who served in the last Conservative government, the cleaning of slime from a moat at his country home.
But the unkindest cut came from a commentator on the BBC who suggested that part of the problem was the accession of a new class to the Halls of Parliament, “the chattering classes: journalists and academics!”
This proves the British MPs are human! And although the public outrage tends to condemn all politicians, in fact not a few are good honest persons doing their best to promote the common good.
Why is this topic a matter of concern to a serious US Catholic blog? Trying to divert attention from US problems?
Sister, clearly, you underestimate the national shame involved in inviting The Quality over for cream tea and buns when there’s slime in the moat and not enough horse pucky to go around..
And Sinn Fein on a Sassenaugh expense account? I’m sorry, but sometimes life is funnier than fiction.
Jean,
for the sake of dotCom decorum, try to keep a stiff upper lip!
Jean,
As an Englishwoman I have to apologise for involving the USA by association with our squalid politics! I have read much recently about the way some Famous US Catholics guard the hem of their garment from being polluted by possible contact with those whose constitutional pre-eminence far outstrips their moral acceptability. I did not realise that British run-of-the-mill MPs could have such a shameful effect/influence.
Personally, I read the details of all the alleged and denied wrongdoing with some suspicion. Round my way, horse manure is available for free. Just what are they buying who claim to pay for theirs secretly? Organic C*nn*b*s maybe? As for cleaning out the moat, England had so much rain – and floods – over the past two summers, I’m surprised the resulting lake did not invade the house – whoops – stately home.
I guess there’s more muckraking to come.
Sister,
I forgot you live Over There!
I, too, wondered why anybody in Parliament would need to PAY for horse manure when governing bodies the world over seem to have so much on hand to spread around.
However, given what I’ve head from Speaker Pelosi, Would-Be-King Gingrich, Dr. Strangelove Cheney and the rest of the motley political crew Over Here, I’d say we could meet whatever shortfall in that particular substance you might need.
Let us know. And accept no inferior cheapo Chinese substitutes that might be adulterated with lead paint or melamine. Our stuff is pure, 100 percent horse manure!
Father Imbelli, I don’t think I got that stiff upper lip gene, but I’ll try to maintain the little sense of decorum I was raised up with. :-)
Brava, Giovanna, well said.
but do they always pronounce “heard” as “head” in your parts?
Wouldn’t want to give our English cousin a bad impression of us Yanks!
It really is difficult to see a way through all of this. Its easy to see that some MPs got caught up in a culture of ‘if he/she is claiming that then I can too’. All of us see our expectations shift as we get a bit of an income – things I saw as a real treat when I was a student I now see as a necessity. I found the whole Tony Blair thing with him and his wife having flash holidays courtesy of celebrity friends distasteful. But then in the days when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister enjoying modest holidays on the Isles of Scilly he thought nothing of having his children privately educated – pretty much career suicide for today’s aspiring Labour ministers. All I would say is that the mood at the playground gates here in my part of East London is pretty angry. People understand the need for MPs to have a second home in order to do their work both in Westminster and their constituency but to lavishly furnish it in a way that most of their constituents could not afford (the receipts are making it clear that they didn’t go to IKEA for their bookshelves) is making people, understandably, angry. My former MP, it seems, had an antique rug flown from New York at a cost of over £1,000 while serving a deprived Manchester constituency. This is not to say that he didn’t do a laudable job of representing our interests but he really couldn’t expect taxpayers to fund his very good taste in soft furnishings. I do feel sorry for those MPs who didn’t play the system and are now tarred with the same brush. I’m sure its a horrible job dealing with the endless intractable problems of consitutents but that doesn’t entitle you to treats ‘because I’m worth it’.