Class consciousness is alive and well amongst our rulers – sorry, I mean elected representatives – in Parliament.
As if bailing out their mates in the financial sector wasn’t brazen enough, now ministers are poised to exempt MPs and peers from having to publish details of their expenses.
Next week’s move, announced yesterday by leader of the Commons Harriet ‘Starvin’ Harman, reverses hard fought victories won by journalists and campaigners to force MPs to reveal the details of their expenses under Freedom of Information rules.
Details to be disclosed included claims for office staffing and equipment, furnishings, maintenance, travel, rent and even mortgage payments.
With the introduction of the new rules, members of both houses of Parliament will now be the only paid public officials who will not have to disclose full details of their expenses.
According to reports, Harman pressed for the changes to the rules after being lobbied by the Tories’ backbench 1922 Committee and the parliamentary Labour Party Committee.
Although, in theory, MPs are supposed to represent the interests of their constituents, they have shown time and time again that they are first and foremost interested in looking after themselves as a class.
Recently, David Cameron had to abandon plans to force Tory front benchers to give up their second (and third, and fourth) jobs, after realising the potential for a fierce backlash from his own party.
Conservative MPs are, of course, notorious for cynically lining their own pockets through whatever means necessary – a habit that has, unfortunately, spread throughout the entire Commons in the last couple of decades.
One Tory claimed, unconvincingly, that he and his colleagues needed to moonlight from their day jobs as representatives of the people in order to maintain their ‘middle class’ lifestyles.
Also recently, the government reformed tax rules to make the cut off point for the top rate of tax just above the rate of pay for a cabinet minister.
Consider the idea that politicians represent anyone beyond themselves and those who can enrich them comprehensively refuted.
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