Misplaced Trust

After reading today that three Labour MP's and a Tory pear are to face criminal charges over their expenses claims, I can't help but think a lot of their colleagues are breathing a huge sigh of relief.

All four Parliamentarians will face charges of false accounting. Anyone convicted faces a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment.

Yesterday Sir Thomas Legg, who had been assigned with the task to identify how much Mp's owed for their extortionate claims, announced that a total of £1.1 million pounds was being ordered to be repaid. However, that rather heartening news was quickly overshadowed by the fact that the investigation conducted by Legg had in fact cost £1.2 million. Unbelievable.

The whole expenses saga has riled me as it has so many others. I was utterly shocked at how people who we have placed so much trust in could be so devious.

Since the Daily Telegraph broke the stories last may, we have heard many MP's try desperately hard to defend themselves. Some blamed the legislation, insisting there was no hard or fast rule. Basically they were not told to stop draining public funds, so they didn't. Don't these people have any morals? As a paperboy I wasn’t specifically told not to steal the newspapers, but I didn't.

I was really quite surprised that the whole leak came about last May because Mp’s had in fact agreed to the publishing of expenses claims at the end of 2009. Were they really prepared to come clean voluntarily about all their claims? Not surprisingly the answer was no. On closer inspection a number of Mp’s had voted against the information being released at all, which stalled the process. When it was finally given the go-ahead, provisions were put in place to avoid any serious embarrassment. The proposed documents set for release were heavily censored and would only be published once the Mp concerned had given their full approval.

Whilst I must add that not all MP's filled ludicrous claims for bath plugs and porn films, the actions of some have inevitably tarnished the reputations of so many.
I just hope there are no more revelations to come between now and the general election we expect to take place in May.