Oh dear. Do we never learn the lessons of the past when it comes to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?
This time we, the tax payer, will have to fund a new agency to better regulate the expenses claimed by our elected Members of Parliament. But the real irony is that in its first attempt to get under the skin of the expenses scandal will cost six times the amount discovered to have been repaid by the MPs.
The Independent Parliamentary and Standards Authority, the new body devised by Gordon Brown to decide MPs' salaries and expenses, will cost a massive £6.5m to set up and staff. This despite the lengthy and very public airing of expenses claimed by MPs and subsequently ordered to be repaid being just £1.2m. Promises are being made that the actual running cost for the new department will be lower in subsequent years as this £6.5m includes a number of one off start up costs. The first chairman of the new authority will be paid £700 per day for a three day week.
This comes on top of paying £1.1m to Sir Thomas Legg to fund his initial enquiry of claims from 2004 – 2009. In addition, £400,000 was paid on a separate enquiry by the Committee on Standards in Public Life on reforms to the system.
The work carried out by the Sir Thomas Legg enquiry has clearly identified the scale of the problem underlying the expenses system in the House of Commons. Headlined by the Daily Telegraph, the investigation seemingly left few stones unturned as it sought to establish the validity of expenses claims made since 2004. Goodness knows what was going on before that.
Parliamentarians of all political persuasions are on the back foot with voters over their apparent immunity from the recession and, at times, their connection with common sense. Many of the claims were laughable, some provided an interesting insight into the peccadilloes of our elected few exposed the fraudulent reimbursement of interest on non existent mortgages. No matter how the system has been defended, few can justly say that it reflects an appropriate or justifiable use of taxpayers' money – let alone during a recession.
MPs are paid a basic salary of over £64,000. Hardly peanuts at a time when the average wage is below £24,000. On top of this, they are able to claim a wide range of benefits and expenses with which to support their private office staff, research, travel and accommodation whilst in London attending Parliamentary business. The so called second homes allowance has, arguably, been the most abused part of the system with MPs able to choose their principal residence and claim upkeep on the other. No one denies that those working on our behalf and away from their constituency need suitable accommodation, but this choice of property smacks too much of personal gain rather than job necessity.
So now we, the electorate, have the sledgehammer that we deserve. An unelected body that will determine the pay of MPs without consultation with us, the paymasters. Its workings are now shrouded in civil service procedures and new rules carefully introduced mean that its workings and remit will be tightly controlled. Are we to be duped again?
Voters have a golden opportunity to make their point in the forthcoming election. Many of the MPs that have claimed for dubious items and have cleansed themselves by repaying the taxpayer are standing again for election. Many have seen the writing on the wall and are stepping down only to be cushioned by their generous tax payer funded transitional payments and pensions. Will the new generation of career politicians be any better? For a short while, maybe but when will we start to look at the greater expenses scandals that exist in the House of Lords and European Parliament.
What hope for true reform in the next Parliament? Bigger fish to fry with the economy to sort out? If the current government could not seize the initiative in the closing days of the current Parliament to initiate true reform then there is little hope of it climbing to the top of the agenda in a new parliament – no matter who, if any single party, forms a government.
Time is a great healer and we will forget. The commission will ensure that the dealings and administration of expenses become hidden from gaze and Freedom of Information requests.
The machinery of government and the eliteness of the Westminster village will continue with but minor interruptions from the electorate. Fear not, for they tell us that we are safe in their hands.