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Gravy-train MPs deserve this hurricane of hostility
• THE behaviour of MPs and their outrageous “expense” claims have bewildered and angered me as much as anyone else. The hurricane of hostility towards these MPs from every party is wholly justified.
But it is causing a catastrophic loss of confidence in politics right across the board – from Westminster to town halls throughout the country. We cannot forget that the departing Lib Dem leader in Islington, James Kempton, was set to personally receive almost £70,000 from public sources this year.
I believe it’s time for a wholesale clear-out of MPs discovered buying huge TVs, fancy furniture or clearing the wisteria and dredging the moats of their country piles.
I have not been surprised that most Tory MPs have delusions of grandeur that make them submit outrageous lifestyle claims. But the Labour and Lib Dem MPs who have jumped on the gravy train are a disgrace.
In my own party, I believe we must expel and deselect all the MPs whose greedy selfishness has been exposed. There seems to be rather a lot of these people, but their behaviour is inexcusable and it could easily sink Labour at the next general election.
Many say they acted “within the rules”. Perhaps they did. But these smart political operators clearly surrendered their common sense and probity. They have betrayed Labour’s moral code and they should have no future as our representatives.
As a lifelong, loyal Labour man, my only comfort in these dreadful times is the knowledge that our two Islington MPs, Emily Thornberry and Jeremy Corbyn, each have a clean sheet.
And I stick with the certainty that only a Labour government is likely to overcome the effects of recession, confront poverty and bring fairness and security to this country. But we need a couple of hundred more honest parliamentary representatives first.
CLLR PAUL CONVERY
Labour, Caledonian ward
• SOME commentators, and MPs, are suggesting that the way to deal with the row over MPs’ expenses is to reduce or abolish their allowances and pay them more.
Those who argue that MPs are underpaid seem to be unaware of how unequal pay is in Britain. Half of the population earn below £20,000 a year and two thirds earn below £30,000. MPs’ earnings of more than £64,000 put them in the top three or four per cent of the population.
The gap between the rich and the poor has widened dramatically during the past 30 years. This increase in inequality started under the Thatcher government but has continued under Blair and Brown. In fact, inequality is now higher than at any time since the 1960s and higher than in nearly all other industrialised countries.
While we must be concerned about the behaviour of MPs who have milked their own system of allowances we need to be aware of the wider picture. Inequality is not just unfair and bad in itself but at the root of many of Britain’s social problems, from crime to ill health.
It is the economic policies of the past 30 years that have led us here and it is these policies that must be changed.
RICHARD ROSS Centre For Trade Union Studies
London Metropolitan University, N5
• IN all the hoo-ha about MPs’ expenses, we can be grateful that we have an utterly incorruptible, hard-working and frugal MP in Emily Thornberry, who even spends much of her salary, let alone expenses, in supporting her staff in this problem-ridden constituency.
One trusts that the electorate will be able to see past the errors of others in the party and re-elect her with a massive majority at the next general election.
KEN BALDRY
Gerrard Road, N1
• PAT Edlin is one of many former Labour supporters who have left that party, disillusioned or disgusted (I have left party that will reap a whirlwind at polls, May 8).
He was absolutely right that the Labour Party has become obsessed with power, and that spin and sleaze characterise Labour today. But Mr Edlin is wrong if he thinks our Labour MP, Emily Thornberry, isn’t part of the problem.
He referred to the letter sent out by Mrs Thornberry about the rent increase for council tenants. I got it too. The MP claimed it was Islington Council which was raising the rents when in fact it was the government, and it applied right across the country.
And then Emily claimed full credit for the government’s U-turn that saw its planned rent hike halved, when it was protests from ordinary tenants across the country that forced Gordon Brown to backtrack. Ms Thornberry is as guilty of spin as any of them.
This also came in the week when Ms Thornberry voted against letting Gurkhas who fought for this country stay and live here. Her vote was truly disgusting.
And while MPs’ expenses scandals continue to come out, let’s not forget that time and time again Ms Thornberry has voted to keep her expenses secret – she voted against external audits and against making MPs provide receipts. She voted against bringing the transparency of parliamentary expenses into line with other public bodies.
Cllr PAULA BELFORD
Lib Dem, Canonbury
• IT is sad that, unlike the Labour MP for Islington North, Emily Thornberry did not vote against the government on the issue of Gurkha rights.
She felt unable to attend most votes on increasing the transparency of Parliament but the one time she did vote it was to strike down the recommendation of a committee proposing to limit the “John Lewis list” of MPs’ expenses.
We saw the same thing with post office closures. Apparently a vigorous campaigner, on the one occasion this was put to a Commons vote, she voted against suspending the closure programme. She has also seemed unable to condemn the dirty tricks campaign emanating from 10 Downing Street.
Far from being an independent campaigner for local people and issues, like Jeremy Corbyn, she prefers to toe the party line.
NICK BROWN
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