There’s been something of a shakeup in the political system at Westminster following revelations about MPs’ expenses. With ministers resigning and Prime Minister Gordon Brown facing the toughest challenge to his leadership since he took office two years ago, it all begs the question: how we can reform a system that has been so badly abused?
It’s worth pointing out that not all MPs should be tarred with the same brush. Although there have clearly been some very dodgy goings on with home “flipping” and non-existent mortgages, there are still many MPs who claim very little, or even nothing on their second homes allowances. What rocked Parliament so much was partly the way this scandal was revealed. National newspapers got hold of the details of MPs’ expenses and set about drip-feeding them to the public in a way that laid bare the sheer greed behind the excessive claims.
The Prime Minister suggested a new independent body be set up to oversee Parliament and its expenses claims in order to prevent such abuses from happening again. The obvious benefit there lies in the fact that had this information been freely available in the first place, there would likely have been no scandal. Faced with the prospect of having to defend any spurious claims, MPs would have certainly thought twice before submitting them.
