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No names, no clues - but I know the mole who dug out how Derek Conway MP diverted hundreds of pounds of public money to his wife and sons.
My friend managed to wangle a few weeks' work in the House of Commons' secretive Fees Office. She was convinced a prominent and strikingly repellent MP was on the take. To her disappointment, he wasn't and she decided to look at others instead.
She began at "A" and moved down the list of MPs alphabetically. Conway's temerity leapt out at her, and she tipped off the press. She carried on scrutinising but before she could reach the end of "C" her time in the Fees Office was up.
As I listened to her, I realised that if Derek Conway had been called Eric Donway, the story of his largesse would never have broken. And what, I wondered, of all the MPs with surnames from "D" on? Are they engaged in what we can politely call Spanish practices?
Well, we know Nicholas and Ann Winterton received £165,000 in Commons expenses for their second home in Westminster even though they had paid off their mortgage. We know that Labour's Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper used neat footwork to get the public to pay £44,000 a year towards the cost of their mortgage on a second home in Stoke Newington.
We also know that when faced with a clamour for reform, Michael Martin, the dreadful Speaker, has selected some less than transparent characters to serve on the committee to examine the proper response to a growing scandal.
There is David Maclean, who led the campaign against MPs being scrutinised and Sir Stuart Bell, the Labour MP whose son Malcolm was jailed for a theft from an MP's office he committed wh i le daddy employed him as a Commons researcher.
Above all, we know that outside Westminster such behaviour isn't tolerated for a moment. If a company sends employees to work in another part of Britain or abroad, it will pay for a rented flat or hotel. It would fire them if it found they had used other people's money to buy a house and pocket the profit.
Outside Westminster, lots of people are stressed but they can't say: "My marriage is breaking up, employ my partner at once." Nor can they submit expenses without receipts or expect accusations of skimming to be examined by an incestuous audit committee.
For better and for worse, modern Britain is an open country. We value transparency and accountability above all and are filled with suspicion when they are absent. Parliament must live up to the same standards that everyone must abide by or it will become a despised irrelevance.
Reader views (2)
How do the Wintertons,Balls,Conways live with themselves and the contempt with which they and their behaviour is viewed? I am willing to wager that each and every one of them is to be seen attending a church of some denomination each Sunday à la Blair.
- C Adams, Audierne, France, 08/02/2008 16:54
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How can there be democratic accountability in our outdated constitutional system? The second chamber is filled with members with no democratic mandate who are involved in the legislative process, pushing through bills to receive the royal assent (laws we the people have to abide by), assent nominally given by the monarchy - itself unelected so no democratic accountability there either. The government may have a majority of seats in the Commons, but, as have governments for decades, receive about 40% of the popular vote, while about 60% of voters are excluded, and yet with all this, monarchy, lords and minority government, we are told that we live in a democracy! The British system of government and parliament operates on the basis of patronage, privilege and self regulation, and important decisions are made behind closed doors, with little or no democratic scrutiny and accountability. We can see how the people are engaged in a democratic process in the United States as the primaries are under way, and puts to shame what little openness and democracy we have in the UK. The British constitutional system is well past its sell by date and the sooner we have a different system of government that is truly democratic the better for us all (we the people, at least). Let's see more interest by the press and the media in rigorously addressing the fundamental issues of democracy and accountability in the UK, as quite obviously parliament takes no notice whatsoever of we the people.
- Jack, Norwich, 07/02/2008 10:31
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