For those of you not following the UK news, the UK's House of Commons is currently undergoing a bit of a scandal. It turns out that a bunch of MPs have been claiming unnecessary expenses. Such as:
16,000 pounds on a mortgage which had ended
2,200 pounds on having his house's moat cleaned
41,709 pounds on second home allowances
The BBC lists the total to be repaid as 123,283 pounds and 50 pence. That would fund my workplace for a year. That's a lot of money. Now, while I'm not anti second home expenses for MPs, after all, many workplaces provide relocation expenses, I do think that a lot of these claims are unbelievably corrupt.
So, as well as sacking the idiots, which everyone seems to be baying for, why aren't we holding the civil servants who signed the claims off to account? Whose decision was it to put through a claim for Douglas Hogg to clean his fucking moat?
Sack the guy (I presume it's a man - there aren't many women in the head roles in the civil service) who is in charge of the departments that processed the claims. They are just as responsible.
2 comments:
Exactly. But I don't think people are really looking for a solution, nor do I think they want the massive overhaul that the system needs (and there has to be something wrong with a system that lets this go on unchecked for so long). I suspect people are baying for blood, rather than for reformation; the latter of which would have ramifications beyond the Labour party. No one will do much/anything and the scandal will be forgotten until another takes its place.
Agreed. I think the effect of the media is often to provide an immediate result or condemnation whilst the long term changes that are needed are conveniently pushed tot he side. Sometimes this is due to the media needing to report on new news - they've got to keep people's interest after all and you dot hat by reporting on the next big thing.
But the powers that be don't seem to continue with the work that the media starts - in this case, why would they? They are going to lose out if changes are made.
Re the sytem being unchecked, I'm just about to do a new post on this.
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