The political sense of a bucket of lightly-drowned weasels

[fivemack]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7420848.stm

"MPs could seek to avoid future expenses criticism by awarding themselves an automatic lump sum of £23,000 a year for second homes, a newspaper says"

"If a lump sum payment were made to each MP, the need for these documents to be produced would disappear and there could be a considerable cash boost for those MPs who spend less than the £23,000 permitted."

Handing out lump sums in cash to MPs is the kind of behaviour for which we tut and deduct at least three points when rating the governmental virtue of random countries in South America; what's next, black Mercedes? Is there any merit at all to the idea that important people do not need to provide receipts when spending public money?

If the issue is that MPs need second homes in London, would it make more sense to get Parliament to buy a random seven-hundred-room hotel, a class of building which London hardly lacks, and have them live there?

Comments

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

Well... filling in expenses forms is hugely tedious and timewasting. And, if the expenses are just going to be paid however extravagant they are, maybe it would be best to give the MPs what amounts to a cap and an incentive to economise.

So it depends if £23k is reasonable, or not reasonable. I'm not sure; I've tried living on £17k in London, and I've tried living on £40k [both gross]. I can't remember how I managed the former, and I feel entirely happy and comfortable with the latter but I do still live in someone's spare room. If you wanted to bring some members of your family with you - not totally unreasonable if you're going to spend 2/3 of your life in a place - £23k might be necessary...

I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here. The 700-room hotel sounds a better idea, and I would even have thought more comfortable, what with people around to change the sheets and fix the washing machine and stuff.

[naath.livejournal.com]

You probably *don't* want to be dragging kids around with you though - they'll need to go to school wherever it is they actually live; and your spouse/partner/other adult family members might well want to work, and thus need to live in one place pretty much full time; I don't know how much time MPs usually spend in their constituency verses in London, but I'd expect it would be possible for most of them to make it a weekly commute (and that's something that other people who work in London but want to raise their kids in a 'nice' place do, MPs however at least have a real reason to do so).