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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

MPs expenses fiddles: They are at it again

MPs expenses fiddles: They are at it again

John Bercow, Harriet Harman,Alan Duncan and Nick Harvey have been caught in a conspiracy which allows MPs to claim up to £9,125 per year (double the previous amount), in subsistence payments without the need to provide receipts. Furthermore, they have allowed MPs to decide themselves what they will spend the money on.

This is not cleaning up the expenses system. Given that both Harman and Duncan have publicly stated that it is wrong for MPs to claim without providing receipts, why have they now in secret gone against what they publicly stated?

The only system which will give the public confidence is one where every penny of public funds has to be accounted for, and is not open to abuse. What this corrupt bunch have done is give dishonest MPs the green light to continue fiddling unchecked.

Guardian story here. From £400 per month without receipts to £700 per month without receipts!

How do you clean up a system by making it dirtier?

UPDATE: Dizzy Thinks that the Telegraph story is not quite what it seems. Whatever, it remains totally unacceptable for MPs to allow themselves to dip into the public purse unchecked.

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