Afternoon:
10°c
What is it with them? The former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith this week issued an apology for her mistaken expenses so grudging she really does seem to believe she is the major victim of this demeaning affair.
Ms Smith, remember, started out as the great hope of a second flowering of New Labour women under Gordon Brown's leadership.
Now, she cuts a shoddy picture, without the grace to look remotely regretful about it all.
The formal position is that everyone is sorry about the "complete shambles" (Harriet Harman) of the expenses system.
Privately they are just sorry it came to light and furious with Sir Thomas Legg for his unexpected rigour in unearthing past excesses to add to the ones we already knew about.
This mismatch of public humility and private rage has been a hallmark of the whole affair. It's also the reason its wounds stubbornly refuse to heal.
Westminster is seething with the raw anger of MPs being hard done by. Sir Thomas has stirred up some disruptive old ghosts, including the Prime Minister's own claims (Gordon does seem to have gone a bit OCD on the cleaning), without quite having thought through the consequences and how they would apply.
Rules applied retrospectively are always the shakiest to make fair or consistent - and it would be amazing if this farce does not descend further into a legal muddle about what should and should not be repaid.
"I'm seriously thinking of going to a good employment lawyer," says one (Labour) ex-minister.
"Fortunately, we've got a lot of those in the ranks." A new unpopular cause for Cherie Blair QC perhaps?
Ann Widdecombe has yet another lease of life for saying what many of her colleagues feel: that the payback demanded by Sir Thomas for old claims is erratic and possibly not legal.
It's obvious to everyone else by now that parliamentarians were allowed to run a largely unsupervised system which was simply an extra to their salaries, without due scrutiny.
If you want proof of that, just consider the jaunty tone of MPs' communications with the Fees Office. In no way did they expect rigour, and none was applied.
To onlookers, it feels like an institutionalised fraud, perpetrated at the expense of the taxpayer, with no one taking outright responsibility for what has gone wrong.
On the BBC's Question Time last week, a serious debate between George Osborne and the Treasury Chief Secretary Yvette Cooper about the impact of the Conservatives' spending plans kept being derailed by audience members suggesting that the black hole could be filled by MPs forfeiting their expense claims.
The subject won't go away until the parliament that tolerated this abuse has gone.
It is truly extraordinary just how many nails can be hammered into this political coffin. Every time Labour staggers back from a setback, another memento mori presents itself.
Mr Brown received a particularly grudging reception on Monday when he told his own backbenchers they should not protest at Sir Thomas's conclusions and had to "get on with it".
"It is OK for him," one junior minister told me afterwards. "He has a guaranteed job with some international institution if he leads us to the great defeat. The rest of us have no guaranteed work at all."
Responses and calculations are entwined with the proximity of the election and personal prospects.
Labour MPs with small majorities have nothing to lose by standing up to Sir Thomas, where they believe (with some justification) that his reckoning is questionable and, in some cases, inconsistent.
But David Cameron, too, faces a tricky period of party management.
He was first to issue an ultimatum decreeing that those who don't repay their expenses cannot stand as Tory MPs.
This is decisive but risky - like a lot of Conservative initiatives at the moment.
The cultural gap between Mr Cameron and many of his own ranks is always threatening to open up - and is then usually stitched back together just in time. It's like a family party where they all pretend to like the same music.
But the "two tier" Tory party led by wealthy men such as Mr Cameron and George Osborne and the less well heeled backbenchers has potential for strain.
Ms Widdecombe's militant brandishing of "tribunals" yesterday raised more cheers among her party colleagues than Mr Cameron would like.
He has chosen to identify himself with public anger on this subject, the recession and much else.
He also needs, however, to retain an esprit de corps on his own side: voters still feel that the Conservative Party has not changed as much as Mr Cameron has (or at least affects to have done). That is a weakness that needs watching.
The overwhelming impression, returning from the party conferences to Westminster, is how tired of this saga everyone is. Even the innocent look drained by it.
Michael Martin, the former speaker unseated over his handling of the expenses affair, took Ermine in the Lords yesterday, looking like a man cocking a snook at his own failures, and those of a whole parliament.
No fewer than 130 MPs will stand down before the next polling day: the rate of attrition this year suggests more will follow. So change will come.
A new generation of politicians will make their own mistakes but they are unlikely to repeat those which have seen their predecessors brought low in the great bathplug and duckhouse reckoning of 2009.
Alas, it seems an awful long time to wait. The Prime Minister is always prone to thinking that if he waits long enough, something will turn up to restore his fortunes.
Usually, something else goes wrong first. Of course, Mr Brown won't rush to the polls: he has a 10-point gap with the Tories to contend with first and a recessionary winter on the doorstep.
But he should also heed the mood of voters and not drag out polling day too far beyond an early spring date. Some things are just beyond repair and public trust in this parliament has gone.
Elections are the disinfectant of politics. Best not wait too long.
Reader views (7)
No way SMITH should be allowed back in common and never get a job in finance or in public services. I think public should sue her for fraud and misuse of her power in the post to gain such rewards. If it was a "Joe blog" from a low post civil servant I am sure government would have would have sued the person plus make them pay back the money. My advice to people who have committed such “A called Mistake” should make an appointment with commons to apologise and then keep money and not be jailed or serve community service until all the money is re-cooped back. If that does not work then appeal to court (no win no fee basis)....UK gov is mad and 100% no vote for labour. 64k would pay a two people salary p.a. in UK. My advice would be for Labour party is to all it member to pay back or be ready to get sacked we 2.47 million people on job seeker ready to apply for a job and we sure we will suitable candidate available.
- K Patel, London UK, 14/10/2009 19:56
Report abuse
So we have a legislature that has bowed year after year to the executive that have taken away our civil liberties - 42 day detention, terror laws used to stop protests and allow citizens to be tried in the US without any evidence or that it would be stand up in this country. They have made us the most viewed society, to make us distrust every adult that comes into contact with a child. All of this and much much more and now they have discovered that they have been dealt with unfairly. They only have themselves to blame for their pusillanimous behaviour over many years.You reap what you sow. They have sown the breaking up of our ancient rights and liberties and they are now reaping the whirlwind of unfair legal demands - our MPs only have themselves to blame.
- Will, London, 14/10/2009 19:41
Report abuse
started work at 15 and worked untill i became ill april 2008 aged 63. have been on incapacity benifit since August 2008. followed succesive government advice and contributed to 3 company pensions. been forced to draw on them because incapacity benifit insufficient to cover my costs. However because these pensions amounted to more than £85/week incapacity benifit has been reduced accordingly. Following an ovesight (my fault) i have ieen asked to repay £296. The law ..yes justice no! the chineese have the right solution put the mp transgressers against a wall and shoot them...pass me the trusted Lee Enfield .303
- Frank, BOLTON UK, 14/10/2009 14:19
Report abuse
The divide between politicians, and, the electorate, is to wide to bridge. Politicians, even, those caught with their hand in the till do not acknowledge that they have done anything wrong. They act like career criminals, and, show no, repentance, or shame, for their past actions, other, than the fact that they got caught! Any MP with the least suspicion cast on them, if, they do not do the honourable thing and, resign, should not be allowed to stand in the next election, and, they should have no say in the matter!
PS Honourable is a title politicians do not have a right to apply to themselves!
- Kevin Sullivan, Roehampton, London, 14/10/2009 13:10
Report abuse
According to this article these excesses are additional to the earlier ones that we have been told about. If this is indeed the case, when will some real action be taken against these cheats, twisters and in some cases deliberate fraudsters? What right have these dishonourable people to be angry? It is we who are angry and sick and tired of the sight and sound of them. It has been said before but I believe it is worth asking again.What would have happened to us had we behaved in this way? We all know the answer.
I have now heard it suggested that many of this shower will leave parliament without making any repayment of their excessive claims. This is obviously so that they may get the pensions and resettlement payments that they have set up for themselves. In addition to this apparently a Labour minister has grumbled regarding the job that awaits Mr.Brown when he ceases to be PM. He has moaned that there is no job guaranteed for him. They just don't get it. Welcome to the world that you and your colleagues have created for us. People are not just losing their jobs, they are losing their homes and few if any of them have a tiny fraction of the provision that you, the politicians have set up for yourselves.
We want you to be dealt with by the various authorities as we would be if we had flipped homes, faked mortgage payments,etc. If you and your ilk expect us to have sympathy for you, you should have no illusions we want to see the back of you and should get a swift kick also.
- John, Harrogate N.Yorkshire, 14/10/2009 10:54
Report abuse
"how tired of this saga everyone is. Even the innocent look drained by it."
Not exactly a second tour of Afghanistan though, is it?
- R.Taylor, London, 14/10/2009 10:43
Report abuse
Do not bother stating Cameron and Osborne are wealthy - why NOT add Woodward, Bliar, etc etc etc from Zanu8Liebour in your article. Bias is not a nice thing -even up your article - as for MP`s - THEY knew the then rules, they abused them, now irt is payback. If they do not like it then leave - except Liebour MP`s will be on the dole poor dears.
- Ronreagan, aberdeen, 14/10/2009 09:13
Report abuse
