The MPs Expenses scandal is a Symptom

I has not previously posted on the scandal of MP's Expenses, because:

• The Daily and Sunday Telegraph were doing such a good job of covering this and the rest of the Mainstream media rushed in with a feeding frenzy to cover any angles that the Telegraph had not dealt with. Thus making any post from me irrelevent.
  
• I was not surprised that some MPs were feeding off the expenses gravy train to an embarrassing, scandalous, and probably illegal extent. The scale of some of the claims and the number of MPs involved playing the system for all it is worth did give me pause, but quite honestly I see this entire scandal as purely a symptom of the collapse of standards in public life.
• In the Article MPs' expenses: Full list of MPs investigated by the Telegraph, there were a few MPs' claims that caused a wry, ironic smile: How Sinn Fein MPs' claimed £500,000 for second homes, the five MPs, who represent the political wing of the IRA, have not even taken up their Parliamentary seats and yet they have rented three London properties from the same family at rates well above the market norm. The Hazel Blears property swap trick, which Gordon Brown has deemed totally unacceptable, I found particularly ironic after my post:
  Agreeing and Disagreeing with Hazel Blears. The case of Alex Salmond who's claims for food allowance even when parliament is not sitting (not that he often attends even when parliament is sitting, because he his playing at being a pseudo prime minister in the Scottish part of the United Kingdom). This claim for Food might be expected of John Prescott and of course he did claim the maximum food allowance, but then even when Deputy PM, he was more interested in his perks than actually doing anything useful.
• One name that (so far) does NOT appear of the Telegraph list of investigated MPs' is George Galloway! This is a surprising omission as he was deemed to be the Worst MP in a Telegraph Article on the 4th April 2009. His value rating which is total expenses claimed (for the year 2007/2008) divided by a calculation of an MPs work rate (attendance, voting record, speeches in debate and number of written questions) is £21,201. This is well over three times the 2nd Worst MP Claire Short with a value rating of £6,546 and almost 70 times worse than the best value MP Philip Hollobone (Conservative, Kettering) with a value rating of £376.

But as I stated earlier this scandal is, I believe just a symptom of the collapse of standards in Public Life, where duty, integrity and public service have lost their meaning to far too many of those we elect to represent us. Where the subtle and sometimes less than subtle corruption of whose elected to office is built into the system (second jobs, free trips and dinners where favours are requested and too often granted, an expenses system designed to be abused, etc) . This coupled with the politicising of some Senior Civil Servants under New Labour, has resulted in the Mother of all Parliaments, being more comparable with Nigerian Political Practices of the recent past than a symbol of how Democracy should work.

The complaint that our Politicians have lost touch with the people who elected them is valid. Unfortunately many of them don't actually see this as a problem as they only have to even consider us at election time and these days they will spin their record and that of their party as best they can, then pray that we re-elect them so they can get their noses back in the trough. After all being an MP is their job, their career, we the electorate are an inconvenience that can be ignored most of the time whilst they get on with being a Politician.

Even some of those who express concern about the need reengage the public in politics have, by their behaviour done this cause serious harm, yes Hazel Blears (nicknames 'Chipmunk' and my favourite from Ian Hislop, 'Squirrel Nutkin') I mean you!

However there are MPs' with integrity and a belief they are in Parliament to make a positive difference, Notably:
Douglas Carswell who was elected in 2005 and shortly afterwards was moved to comment openly of his "revulsion" at the system and how, frankly, he was embarrassed to be an MP - His Blog is now on my must read list!

Blog Links:
BBC Nick Robinson's News Blog
BBC Stephanomics - Stephanie Flanders

Douglas' Blog (Douglas Carswell MP)
his website is here:
Douglas Carswell MP for Harwich and Clacton
Iain Dale's Diary (Tory)
Labour List (Obviously Labour)
(Note - former editor: Derek Draper who resigned due the emails smear scandal)
Guido Fawkes Blog
(Apparently Hazel Blears least favourite political blog
Now on the Idle Man's must read list)

Something worth Reading:
(and I still mean to blog on this):
Revitalizing Politics: Have We Lost the Plot?.
a paper by:
Gerry Stoker, Colin Hay and Andy Williamson.