Good luck with that- the Sir’s would just vote against it lol

Not a particularly temperate response, but I’ll try to clarify my argument.

Currently, MPs can claim generous allowances for household items and maintenance. Upper limits are applied by the Fees Office for some items: white electrical goods and more arbitrarily for furniture. The Fees Office do not send an inspector round to ensure that goods are in use at the address for which they are claimed but, contrary to popular opinion, those who have abused the system are a minority. Thus, even when allowances/expenses were assumed to be private by MPs, the majority self-regulated and made reasonable claims.

The fact that expense claims are to become public does not remove the requirement for self regulation. The two processes — self regulation and public disclosure — are linked but not conditional. An MP can self regulate expenses without the need for disclosure, and disclosure will not identify all future abuses.

Fortunately, the rest of the electorate isn’t as stupid as you.

BILL CASH! I mean, you couldn’t make that up could you?

If Armando Ianucci came up with that name his script editor would be asking him to come up with something more subtle.

Sometimes I think god’s taking the piss.

CF – I meant that as a statement of fact, not a partisan point. I’m not really enamoured by the New Labour government and frankly would like to see many more heads role. It’s just a statement of fact that most of the Tories who have gone have had big PR disasters surrounding them (moat cleaning, duck pond, jealous of my big house, angry constituents etc). That’s all I meant.

Ahahahahahahahaahahaha!!!!! Yeah, right.

Here’s a simple analogy, that even those who might have swallowed that tosh can understand:

Gordon needs a poo, but Dave’s already had one.

Can’t make it any clearer…

How stupid to you have to be to write this crap.

If the MPS expenses are public then it is not self regulation. Better trolls please.

Still, it’s good for a laugh. How the Tories chortled when those cabinet member expenses were published right at the beginning of this scandal! More Labour sleaze they thought. Little did they know.

Make no mistake, the last two weeks has been very damaging to the very fragile new Tory brand. The mask has well and truly slipped.

The electorate rightly thinks a pox on all your houses, and if this episode increases the chances of a hung parliament at next year’s GE, then that is to the good. There is no appetite for unfettered Tory rule out there.

The Tories appear to have stood down because they had a strong conversation with Cameron or his representatives. They stood down from orders from the top.

Labour are hardly getting into gear, but some local parties are demanding participation. The party (English or GB?) has appointed a Star Chamber to review potential offenders, apparently, and the Labour Party has not contradicted press reports regarding that description.

I’m lazy so I will simply quote the Wikipedia definition of Star Chamber: “The court was set up to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against prominent people, those so powerful that ordinary courts could never convict them of their crimes. Court sessions were held in secret, with no indictments, no right of appeal, no juries, and no witnesses. Evidence was presented in writing. Over time it evolved into a political weapon and has become a symbol of the misuse and abuse of power by the English monarchy and courts.”

Nobody has been sacked yet by Star Chamber. But barristers are still rubbing their hands.

I won’t comment on the LibDems because I normally vote for them.

In the new world where central parties can’t be trusted, all of the discipline is being discussed by central parties. That is not enough. All local parties need to be in control of their candidate selection process for the next general election, even if they pick a thief.

Err, no. Self regulation of MPs’ expense claims does not work when the claims are secret. Self regulation of MPs’ expense claims does work when the claims are public and a receipt is required for every cost. That is why some MPs are paying back money to the Fees Office at the moment. Unfortunately, a few MPs are paying back money for legitimate claims alongside the thieves.

There are still two big, and as yet fairly unexamined, areas where the fall-out may be considerable:
a) The employment from the public purse of relatives, spouses etc and how legitimate their work is.
b) The range of outside employment, especially the revolving door (y’know, someone is a minister in a certain dept, and pops up later advising a private company that operates in that very field…Blunkett, and Hewitt are blatant examples, but many Tories too). The public mood has shifted, and I don’t think that such cosy arrangements will be sustainable any more, thank goodness.

No; of course not. LOL

But not to worry – the electorate will take care of the Labour troughers at the GE.

I’ve added other people who have had some action taken against them.

Feel free to suggest more names, I’m still playing catch-up.

Careful, Some Tories will claim for one.

I do find it interesting that Tory Mps keep blaming the system, yet they don’t seem to understand that this is about personal responsibility, something Tories like to bang on about in others. If the system was crap they should not have used it. No one forced them to claim all this money for bogus things. Many Tory Mps are very wealthy and don’t need the money, yet they could not help themselves.

If you want a good example of the folly of self regulation (another right wing idiocy) then you only have to look at what has happened to Bankers and politicians in the last few years.