The Bewilderness

A rising tide of anger

Analysing the series of sleaze revelations, and the actions that have followed, can track a dissolution of the public mood from humour to rancour. The politicians have managed to outrun the tolerant temper of their voters and ignite a righteous anger. A series of revelations have begun to lead to action and resignations in both Tory and Labour circles; the damning news even overshadows the suspension of two Labour Lords for the first time since the Civil War, with the contempt shown for the Labour government.

It [Lords Committee on Privileges] stopped short of calling for their full expulsion, concluding that it did not have the power to do so.

But in a striking rebuff to the Attorney General, it decided that it did have the power to suspend the pair until the end of the current session of Parliament, relying on laws dating back more than 300 years.

The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, earlier advised the committee that it did not have such powers.

Hopefully this demonstrates a genuine shift from apathy to engagement. Since, this episode cannot be allowed to remain confined to expenses, liberal radicals like Douglas Carswell must harness this disillusion for productive ends in proposing and completing reform.

The latest poll from Yougov shows that Labour is damaged most with the Tories suffering collateral damage. UKIP has been resurrected from its disorganised ending. A gratifying note that dissatisfaction has leant towards the libertarian rather than the statist parties.

A call for Parliamentary reform

The continued exposure of a political class with its system of rules and expenses has publicised a wide gulf between legislator and legislated. Although the continual series of innuendo will run for a few more days, attention should turn to the actions required for change. A clear-out of the class is required. Those who are most guilt of egregious troughing should be forced to resign. A good test is whether they are forced to pay taxes with interest.

Some should go anyway: the Speaker, Labour's Whips and Sir Stuart Bell, and the Tory grandees:

...Sir Stuart Bell, Labour's representative on the committee that runs the Commons, wanted to push through a plan to privatise the "fees office" because he believed it would shield receipts from the Freedom of Information Act.

Sir Stuart's plan is understood to have the backing of the Labour whips, who detest the release of expense data. But it was described by a Commons source as "barmy and wrongheaded" and based on a misunderstanding of freedom of information rules.

The ancien regime still assumed that they could defend their abuses, mounting a rearguard action after the open barndoor let the sunshine in.

Now would be the best time to call a General Election and remove this tainted Parliament; that is unlikely to happen under the final months of New Labour. However, the appalling behaviour of the present crowd gives us time to consider the role of Parliament and present an appropriate set of constitutional changes. With appropriate safeguards, recall elections could be introduced. The powers of the Whips need to be diluted or abolished and some thought should be given to the separation of legislature and executive. Other ideas have been mooted such as the Departmental Select Committees voting on that department's budget. Greater oversight and accountability must be the watchwords, accompanied by more devolution and an English Parliament.

It is time for constitutional change and parliamentary reform of a radical bent that provides channels for the electorate to visibly curb abuse and punish the wicked grubs who have besmirched the reputation of the House.

The Turn of the Tories

As mooted in the weekend press, the Daily Telegraph has now turned its fire upon the Tories. The gravest pattern of behaviour concentrates upon the practice of flipping, shifting a designated property to claim on expenses. This has led to some of the usual and not-so-usual suspects being fingered: Francis Maude, Andrew Lansley, Michael Gove, Alan Duncan and, surprisingly, Chris Grayling.

David Cameron's response has gone further than Labour's mealy-mouthed defence by shaping a mea culpa and saying sorry:

Last night Mr Cameron, the Conservative leader, apologised for the way in which the expenses system had been used by many MPs. “We have to acknowledge just how bad this situation is and just how angry the public are,” he said. “We have to start by saying that the system we had and used was wrong and that we are sorry about that.”

Mr Cameron has pledged to take firm action against Conservative MPs found to have exploited the system. It was not clear, however, whether he was preparing to act over the allegations against some of his most senior colleagues.....

Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, has condemned the “flipping” of the designation of second homes by ministers.

“The idea was always that ministers were deemed to have their primary residence in London when they were members of the government,” he said. He called for a “hard and fast rule” about what constitutes an MP’s primary home.

Mr Cameron said last week that claims by Conservative MPs that were outside the rules would be “looked at”. “They just have to explain themselves,” he said. “That’s what all my MPs are going to have to do, that’s what I will have to do and I think that’s what the public deserve – they are angry about it and they want it sorted out.”

One should question David Cameron's response in one respect: does he go far enough in disciplining members of his Shadow Cabinet or political party. The leader certainly anticipates the public mood better than Brown, but there is a similar message to the Labour party: the rules were set, the system was wrong, but MPs will only be disciplined if they broke those rules.

The Tories are in a favourable position. Fewer members of the Shadow Cabinet are guilty of breaking the rules, and Cameron has a record of discipline in the most egregious cases. Furthermore, none of the public faces are implicated. Still, Cameron could usefully demote or remove some of those found guily.
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Expenses scandal engulfs Labour and Brown (Tories to follow)

Gordon Brown is directly implicated in the latest expenses scandal. For some reason, he paid his brother thousands of pounds for a shared cleaner, though others he paid directly. As the Telegraph points out, this would not have been revealed under the release of information planned for July as personal data had been removed. This removal allowed one abuse to be hidden: the switching of properties so that a number of homes could be furnished and decorated at public expense.

Later this summer details of more than a million receipts for expenses claimed between 2004 and 2008 are set to be released. However, MPs have already passed a law to prevent the publication of their addresses, making it impossible to understand the way the allowance has been misused. Only when the addresses are examined does it become clear how some MPs routinely switch the designation of their second home in order to maximise the benefit that accrues from the allowance.

Many have claimed tens of thousands of pounds to furnish and renovate what any reasonable person would consider to be their principal residence – the home where their families reside. A large proportion of MPs have refurbished, decorated and sold second homes at taxpayers' expense, using the allowance to pay the mortgage interest and then pocketing the profit or buying another property. Many seem to have come to regard the allowance as a basic human right to be used for the most prosaic purchase.

Very few of the Cabinet come out with any honour: Hilary Benn and Alan Johnson to the fore (the new leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party?). We have already had the rush of defences from Ministers defending their positions as working within the rules: a defence that will not wash since they made the rules without independent scrutiny.

Let Andy Burnham have the last word on how desperate they became to get the money:

After rejecting the claim three times, the authorities finally gave in to a series of desperate pleas from the Culture Secretary and his wife to pay the money. Mr Burnham even told the Fees Office that he “might be in line for a divorce” if he did not get the money quickly, The Daily Telegraph claimed last night.

Labour Sleaze lurches into the cabinet

The sleaze story on expenses hits Labour more than any other party. The Telegraph, aware that their reputation has been besmirched, now gets hold of the Cabinet's expenses. As stated in the article,

The Daily Telegraph has seen uncensored copies of the receipts, which lay bare the extent to which MPs exploit the system to maximise the amount they can claim from the taxpayer.

The level of claims could be perceived as trivial by those who have to pay for goods and services out of their own money.

Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, splashed out more than £3,000 on a new hot water system for his second home, explaining in a letter to the parliamentary fees office that his water was too hot.

Paul Murphy and the Cabinet may now be in hot water. The Fees Office in Parliament were aware of these abuses but took no action and did not subject the submissions to an independent audit. Most serious for the Labour Party is the inclusion of the Prime Minister amongst the Ministers who face discrepancies or variations, if we employ euphemisms. After the shambles of Woolas, Lumley and the Gurkhas, the government faces a neverending parade of disasters.

If this does strike as high as Brown, then we may see this government fall, or take such shameful action to feed at the trough, that the electorate will truly become porkbusters.
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Labour's red rag to the media

Looks like Red Rag, the website was registered under a false name at the House of Commons. Gus O'Donnell is running for the hills under cover of a potential official enquiry. This is beginning to acquire legs.

Labour's pathetic attempt to claim distance has died. This party has managed its last news cycle.

Sleaze rushes to the head

The amount of news that is now devoted to expenses and MPs actions to undermine the spirit of their own rules has become more than a trickle. Every Sunday newspaper is looking for a further scam or shortcut that provides evidence of MPs obtaining an advantage denied to the voter. This perpetuates the common notion of a political class, out-of-touch with the ordinary voter. The only similarity with the G20 leaders is this notion of distance.

Today, Geoff Hoon was claiming expenses on a second home when he was enjoying 'grace and favour' accommodation in the Admiralty. He was instantly labelled "Three Homes" Hoon. And why would we sympathise?. Hoon declared that he was acting within the rules, even though his actions were clearly wrong:

“The second home allowance is supposed to subsidise the cost of living away from your main family home. But if that cost is being met by the taxpayer then you should not be able to claim for what is effectively a third home,” the source said.

Whilst Hoon had this third home, it has come to light that his colleagues decided to claim their stamp duty on expenses as well. This is allowed under their procedures, but in this stringent climate, falls as another blow on any reputation for probity. Especially when the claim is manipulated to provide a retirement home, which the MP was stupid enough to admit.

The latest attempt to offset rapid disillusionment is a meeting of the party leaders to anticipate and frame the report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. The natural shelf life of this sleaze is the final publication of the expenses, as reform is now more likely prior to any election.

Make allowances say MPs, as we haven't enough for our povertystricken lifestyles

Let me get this straight. Members of Parliament, after a rearguard battle to prevent the publication of their expenses, will now have the power to vet these documents. The Telegraph gives a rather detailed exposition of the process that is worth regaling here.

Under a Freedom of Information request, a body will allow external parties to redact the requested documentation, so that sensitive information or personal data will not enter the public realm. So far, so good for our sleaze ridden political class. However, individual MPs will have the right to vet this redaction process and propose or demand further information that should be blacked out. If there is judged to be a confliect, this will be referred up to Members Estimates Committee, a body of MPs, chaired by those experienced in using expenses, such as the Speaker.

Nick Harvey, the chairman of the House of Commons Commission, which oversees the publication process, confirmed that MPs will be able to alter their papers.

He said: "On completion of the scanning and editing work, members will need to check the records relating to them, and further editing may then be required."

No date for final publication of the edited receipts has been set, he said.

MPs have effectively been given a veto over publishing their own sleaze and can use the process of redaction to delay publication for as long as possible. This short-sighted approach is designed to delay revelations till after the general election, though drip drip leaks may prove more damaging in the long run.

This is already a scandal after Gordon Brown, his fairweather reputation for dishonesty destroyed, kicked the issue of expenses down the pitch with a review starting in September and designed to report in late 2010. Cameron has attacked this evasion as unsatisfactory but Brown will not budge. His calculated support for Jacqui Smith after her 'porn again' husband was found out only reinforces anger around the country. If it isn't adult movies being claimed for, Jacqui Smith has obtained other luxury goods:

The Sunday Express, which reported the details, also reported that she had in fact claimed more than £150,000 in ACAs since 2001, including £1,000 for an antique fireplace, £704 for a sofa bed and £550 for a Habitat stone kitchen sink.  

Brown, encircled, embittered and paranoid, will not allow one Minister to resign for such petty (cash) reasons..