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In 1648 Edward Sexby in expressing the mood of the ordinary people of Britain complained about the King and his ‘rotten Parliament’. The mood of the ordinary people, or more properly that of Oliver Cromwell and his associates, ultimately led to the execution of Charles I and to a new Parliamentary system.
362 years later the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, used exactly the same words when referring to the debacle of MPs expenses. He got that right!
Look at the newspapers today. We learn that over half of our MPs have been ordered to repay £1.1 million following Sir Thomas Legg’s review of their expense claims for the last five years. This morning, the Director of Public Prosecutions has announced that the Crown Prosecution Service will charge three MPs and one peer under the Theft Act.
This has been a Rotten Parliament. Not only for taking us into a needless war with Iraq, for allowing taxation to reach new levels, for allowing bankers to overreach themselves and so put the economy at risk and for ... the list is endless.
But above all, many of the MPs in this Rotten Parliament have shown that they have milked a ‘flawed’ expense system for all it is worth and, even now, they complain they have been unfairly treated. Those charged this morning have also raised the question as to whether they are covered by Parliamentary Privilege!
Some of the amounts to be repaid are trivial, like .35p for a cup of Horlicks claimed by a Tory MP. Other amounts are staggering, such as £42,458 to be repaid by a junior minister or the married couple of Tory MPs who managed to milk the system for £60,000.
It was the Daily Telegraph that first uncovered the scandal of MPs expenses and, despite objections from the then Speaker and Government seniors, it persisted. It was right to do so for if we cannot have trust in our MPs personal behaviour we cannot trust them for anything else.
MPs are meant to represent what Edward Sexby referred to as the ‘ordinary people of Britain’. It is to be hoped that those elected to the next Parliament will show that they can do so.
The words of Oliver Cromwell all those years ago when addressing the Long Parliament ring as true today as it did then.
‘Begone, you have sat here too long. It is time to give way to honester men!’
.
In 1648 Edward Sexby in expressing the mood of the ordinary people of Britain complained about the King and his ‘rotten Parliament’. The mood of the ordinary people, or more properly that of Oliver Cromwell and his associates, ultimately led to the execution of Charles I and to a new Parliamentary system.
362 years later the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, used exactly the same words when referring to the debacle of MPs expenses. He got that right!
Look at the newspapers today. We learn that over half of our MPs have been ordered to repay £1.1 million following Sir Thomas Legg’s review of their expense claims for the last five years. This morning, the Director of Public Prosecutions has announced that the Crown Prosecution Service will charge three MPs and one peer under the Theft Act.
This has been a Rotten Parliament. Not only for taking us into a needless war with Iraq, for allowing taxation to reach new levels, for allowing bankers to overreach themselves and so put the economy at risk and for ... the list is endless.
But above all, many of the MPs in this Rotten Parliament have shown that they have milked a ‘flawed’ expense system for all it is worth and, even now, they complain they have been unfairly treated. Those charged this morning have also raised the question as to whether they are covered by Parliamentary Privilege!
Some of the amounts to be repaid are trivial, like .35p for a cup of Horlicks claimed by a Tory MP. Other amounts are staggering, such as £42,458 to be repaid by a junior minister or the married couple of Tory MPs who managed to milk the system for £60,000.
It was the Daily Telegraph that first uncovered the scandal of MPs expenses and, despite objections from the then Speaker and Government seniors, it persisted. It was right to do so for if we cannot have trust in our MPs personal behaviour we cannot trust them for anything else.
MPs are meant to represent what Edward Sexby referred to as the ‘ordinary people of Britain’. It is to be hoped that those elected to the next Parliament will show that they can do so.
The words of Oliver Cromwell all those years ago when addressing the Long Parliament ring as true today as it did then.
‘Begone, you have sat here too long. It is time to give way to honester men!’
.
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