Why are expense fraud MPs above the law?
One law for them…: This image appeared on Twitter, summarising how the law treats MPs in comparison with the rest of us.
How strange that John Bercow would want to make himself an accessory to MPs’ fraudulent expenses claims!
It seems the Speaker of the House of Commons has ordered that details of all MPs’ expenses, claimed before the system was reformed in 2010, should be shredded.
The decision will have come as good news for Members such as George Osborne, who made a cool £1 million off the taxpayer from expenses payments made to cover a mortgage on open land in his Cheshire constituency which he claimed he was using for Parliamentary business.
(The bad news for him is that Vox Political holds copies of relevant documents and will certainly launch another attempt to have Osborne prosecuted, if the opportunity presents itself. Oh, and the Daily Telegraph – which has a complete record of claims made under the former system and used it in a series of reports that shocked the nation and led to the system being reformed, a matter that has now become a two-edged sword.)
Bercow’s reasons for burning the books are a mystery. According to the Telegraph, weakling standards watchdog Kathryn Hudson has been dealing with multiple allegations raised by constituents. Now she is able to tell them that their concerns cannot be investigated due to lack of evidence.
This is not good enough.
In fact, it is worse than the original, scandalous system. At least, with that, it was possible to find out who had claimed money and why; that is no longer the case.
The Telegraph article tells us that the Commons’ ‘Authorised Records Disposal Practice’ lays down guidelines about the length of time for which records may be kept. Thousands are stored indefinitely in the Parliamentary Archive. The pay, discipline and sickness records of Commons staff are kept until their 100th birthday. Health and safety records are kept for up to 40 years.
How long are records of MPs’ expenses kept until they are destroyed? Three years.
Why such a short period? “Data protection”.
Why does this only apply to MPs’ expenses and not to the other matters? No answer.
We know why, though, don’t we? It’s in order to cover up the wrongdoings of the most corrupt Parliament in living memory.
We know that the government has been legislating to ensure that money is drained from the poor and needy into the hands of the rich and the powerful corporations they run, in return for generous donations to the Conservative Party (arrangements for the Liberal Democrats are not known to this blog).
Who knows what backbenchers have been doing in the meantime? They’ve certainly been living the life of Riley while some of us have had to struggle simply to secure the state benefits that we have spent our entire working lives subsidising – and many others, having been denied those benefits for spurious reasons, are no longer with us as a result.
Still, considering the limp punishment handed down to Maria Miller, who between 2005 and 2009 claimed £90,718 in Parliamentary expenses for the mortgage and upkeep of a south London house that was occupied, not by herself, but by her parents, there is no reason to believe any of them would have received a just and proper punishment.
(She was fined £5,800 and made a half-hearted apology – not to the taxpayer, but to Parliament, after a committee of, you guessed it, MPs overruled the standards commissioner’s recommendation that she be made to repay £45,000.)
If any other citizen (who did not have the right business- or class-based connections) embezzled that much money, they would be jailed for a lengthy period of time – in fact we have recently seen cases in which people who were reduced to stealing from supermarkets or food banks, after the DWP sanctioned their benefits, have been jailed for unduly lengthy periods. Yet MPs are, essentially, let off the hook.
The problem is: They’re above the law.
There won’t be any justice in this system until the whole mechanism for investigating allegations against MPs – of any kind – is handed over to the police, where it belongs.
And not just the Metropolitan Police, who are nearby and may end up facing their own corruption allegations. Perhaps it is best that the responsibility be handed between forces on a rota system, in order to minimise the opportunity for underhandedness.
No MP would ever vote for that, of course. In a perfect world they might but, in this one, all that is required to buy their silence is peer pressure. In a perfect world (again) the electorate would be able to hold MPs to account with the threat of being removed from their seat at the next election, but we know that this does not happen in practice. Some ex-MPs who were disgraced in the last expenses scandal will be standing for election again next May.
What’s the answer, then?
A petition has been started, to have MPs accused of fraud investigated and prosecuted – but this seems doomed to failure for practical purposes; the evidence no longer exists!
Perhaps the best way forward would be to pursue Bercow, for ordering the destruction of the files, and the weakling Hudson for allowing them to be destroyed.
Alternatively, the Telegraph could make its files publicly available, and we could all carry out investigations of our own.
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What would you expect from the Dwarf.Order, Order.
Is there nothing that can be done about this criminality ? Can’t the EU have some say on what this shower of crooks are doing, after all they were not voted in, they fiddled it amongst themselves to form a coalition albeit Clegg has been a teasmaid for camaroooon ever since. Transparency my butt, I wonder how much goes under the carpet, if the whole truth came out I am sure there would be a revolution.
I’m not sure they are any better.
Why are expense fraud MPs above the law? I dunno you’d have to ask Maria Miller & her scummy mates that question.
I am glad you have posted this i am sick asking different groups why these fraudsters are not prosecuted but never get an answer, please keep up your good work and nail these thieves once and for all.
It has ever been so, until the present system is destroyed, so will it be .
Dissolution of the Long Parliament by Oliver Cromwell given to the House of Commons, 20 April 1653
It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
In the name of God, go!
The EU have enough crooks fiddling their expenses, so not interested in those fiddling their host country.
I watched priminister question time on TV and I thought what a bunch of w**kers camoran and miliband were slagging each other off acuasing each other of what they have done. absolutely nothing to help the poorest people all thay think of is how much money thay can get in there pockets
Under the Theft Act 1968 (if it is still around and they haven’t shredded that as well) the action of destroying this material is an offence. Such behaviour always used to be covered by the section relating to ‘false accounting’ and it was an offence to destroy material which was required for an accounting purpose. Unfortunately it has been rumoured that the material referring to Anthony Blair’s claims was the first to go this way during the first round of ‘expenses scandals’. The suggestion that the Met Police might have the inclination to investigate these matters is wishful thinking – they take their orders from Parliament and exist to protect MPs, not to prosecute them, (is that fact not yet appreciated by everyone?) Did someone on this site a few days ago suggest that we that had a duty to vote in the general Election in 2015? This affair, and the comments of the shamed ex-MP Dennis McShane on learning of the ‘shredding news’, amply confirms that voting – for anything in the UK – is time wasted.
No it doesn’t. Paying attention to you is time wasted, if that’s all you have to say.
You’re not paying attention. Defending inaction on allegations of crime by those we elect is serious and demands attention.
You don’t elect them if you don’t vote.
If you don’t vote, you can’t complain when they do things you don’t like.
Charles I was executed because he believed he was above the law and could do what he liked without retribution – perhaps some of our MPs should reflect on that!
IMO because that’s what our Court System in its current form was created for; to separate those above the law from those under it. Those above the Law always have their biased, internal “Enquiries” instead of Court Cases in front of Jury’s. Welcome to the UK Corporation!
What does this tell us about mps’ constituents? Are they happy that their elected representative is committing fraud?