MPs’ expenses - scandal is undignified (From Borehamwood Times)

MPs’ expenses - scandal is undignified

2:02pm Friday 26th June 2009

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The journalistic tenacity which resulted in the public exposure of the Westminster elite’s annual systematic plundering of the slush fund of expenses, deserves the applause of the nation’s taxpayers for the courage and efforts of Benedict Brogan and his editorial team at The Daily Telegraph.

The anger and aggregating fury of taxpayers, many of whom may be contemplating the threat of unemployment and the ravages of the recession will not be abated by the sudden announcement of Scotland Yard Police that investigations will be conducted where MPs are considered to be in breach of the Fraud Act 2006 and the Theft Act 1968.

Threats of complaints being made by members of the public to the Independent Police Complaints Commission about the current failure of the police to investigate the obvious fraudulent behaviour of some MPs may, as many of us suspect, initiated this dramatic move to the fast lane of the criminal justice system?

However, even if the police identify that certain MPs be considered for prosecution, the taxpayer must not be too surprised if these recommendations end up on the cutting room floor of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Members of Parliament serially abusing the trust of the nation to self-regulate administrative scrutiny of their expenses have been caught with their grubby little hands in the public coffers due to the courage and dedication of a newspaper, determined and committed to exposure under the threat of litigation by the establishment.

The mere fact that approximately 180 MPs have joined the undignified scramble to repay money received in excess of their entitlements now must surely be deemed as self-incriminating evidence of shameful wrong-doing?

We must not permit any Government using our money to restrict the freedom of the press as this would condemn the rest of us outside the Westminster elite village to a predictable quality of life similar to that of the proverbial mushroom.

‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’ (Edmund Burke, English Whig statesman, 1729-1797.)

Frank Ward, Mildred Avenue, Borehamwood

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