Monday 30 March 2009

Too Expensive

It looks like Home Secretary, Jaqui Smith, amongst others has been caught out fiddling her parliamentary expenses sheet.

I’ve singled Ms Smith out because she holds one of the highest offices in the land. She’s the lady entrusted with sorting out the wrongdoers in our society.

I’m the chairman of a Local Access Forum, and the government say that the local authority has to pay me any travelling expenses that I incur doing the job.

This works out to a few measly quid a year for which I have to supply an almost yard by yard, (or for younger readers, metre by metre), account of my journeys before I get begrudgingly paid months later.

This is not a gripe, just a statement of fact. Most of the members of the forum don’t even bother to claim, we all do the job for free because we feel privileged to represent the public.

It seems to me that a lot of MPs seek election, not to represent the people but to see how much cash they can extract from the job. Why are these people not singled out and expelled?

As JFK once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

A very apt motto for our times!

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