My favourite MP really has gone too far this time. In Sunday’s Observer, she actually came out with the following:
“[Thanks to the expenses scandal] it’s a place of monks and millionaires. I was with an MP the other day, and his wife rang him. She was at the supermarket checkout and her debit card had been refused. They had no money in their account. He was just distraught, and all because he’s too scared to claim travel expenses, scared of what the local paper will write if he does. People are starving, poor things.”
That’s an amazing statement from someone who is actually supposed to be representing her constituents – many of whom are in low paid menial jobs, many more of whom are through no fault of their own unemployed. If the people of Mid Bedfordshire ever needed a simple demonstration of why they really must try to take elections a little more seriously in future, then there it lies folks…
Still, an MP’s life hangs in the balance, so let’s tackle Nadine’s claims head on.
The local paper Nadine will have no issue at all with an MP claiming legitimate travel expenses. Nor will I, and nor will Tim Ireland. Legitimate expenses are, well, legitimate. Your friend is perfectly at liberty to submit his expenses, and so long as he only makes legitimate claims, he has nothing to fear.
If he cannot see that, if in his judgement he really has to starve both his wife and himself rather than claim legitimate money that he is perfectly entitled to, then perhaps he should consider another role in society – he’s not cut out for life as an MP.
That these words could come from an elected representative of the people is shocking. If Nadine really thinks that people earning £65,000 a year are starving, then she really needs to come back and visit planet Earth some time…
On a personal note, I started a relationship with a young lady a few weeks ago. My girlfriend, whom we’ll call Kirsty for the sake of this conversation, is a teaching assistant at a school some ten miles from her home. She has a four year old daughter, a degree in Child Development, and works 20 hours per week. The cupboards have been bare – they were last week, which ended in my forcing Kirsty to accept a little help with a few things…
Kirsty is, quite rightly a proud woman. She should be – she’s doing an amazing job of raising her daughter, she’s holding down a job, she’s keeping a lovely clean home for the two of them – basically doing absolutely everything you would hope a mother would. She doesn’t like accepting help, and finds it to be a little demeaning. She feels, not unreasonably, that perhaps since she went out there and earned a degree, then came into public service in a vital role helping to teach our youngsters, that perhaps she really ought to have a tenner to herself every now and then.
The truth though, sadly, is very different. The truth is that I know Kirsty places her daughter’s interests ahead of her own. I know Kirsty has skipped meals so that her daughter would have plenty to eat. That’s just how things are at the moment.
Things are however going to get a lot worse, because it’s just been decided that Kirsty has been overpaid in terms of benefits, and so the government would like over £2,000 back, thanks very much. Apparently, the onus was on Kirsty to spot the errors in the assessment they carried out, and that they sent to her, when she opened it. The fact that Kirsty is not a benefits expert is not, it would seem, of any relevance here – and a good woman who is already skimping on her own food for the sake of her daughter has just been told that she will have to pay back £23 per week.
So, if this is how Kirsty, as a law abiding public servant, is to be treated, then I don’t really have a lot of time for MPs who are worried about their expenses. True, this is helped in part by the fact that I don’t personally believe Nadine’s story in the first place, but all the same – MPs need to stop bleating about their own petty self interest and get on with the job.
Yes – it is rough out there – the rest of us have bloody noticed!
If as a government you are happy to literally take food out of the mouth of a four year old over a mistake YOU made, then you know what? I don’t give a flying fuck if you don’t find scrutiny to your liking. Deal with it – the rest of us have to, and if you’d like a tip we find that only making honest claims in the first place simplifies matters considerably…
Stop whining, stop bleating, and start doing your bloody jobs.
