[DanaC]

*chuckles*
Oh without doubt this whole thing has got way beyond hysterical. Truth is the government (in 87?) refused to take the advice of the independent body set up to examine MPs wage rates. It was deemed to politically unpopular to increase MPs wages ata time that they were unpopular with the country. The increase which was deemed necessary to bring their wages up to speed with other professionals (like doctors) was agreed but brought in over 8 years, by which time it was woefully out of date. An MP whose career stretches back to the 80s will have seen their wages fall behind first doctors, then head teachers, etc etc.

The chief exec of my local council is paid roughly the equivalent of second tier government minister. A GP is paid 2-3 times what an MP is paid.

Most MPs I know routinely put in 70-80 hour weeks. They are underpaid.

At the time that the advice was being ignored (or worked around) a system of allowances was introduced (thats when the 2nd home allowance came in). MPs were told, explicitly but behind closed doors, that the allowance was in lieu of a payrise.

Unsurprisingly this has fostered a culture of entitlement. Now the public can be all righteous about the MPs fiddling their expenses. Some of the accusations are serious. Some amount to conscious fraud. Much of them are just accounting errors though. LIke Claire Short: the Telegraph puts out that she claimed for full mortgage relief when she was only entitled to interest payments. But that was in 2006, was due to a change in her mortgage which was not met by a change in her regular claims, was picked up by the fees office and the difference promptly repaid, looong before anyone was scrutinising MPs expenses.

But it all just gets stirred into the soup of public anger and outrage. There are reasons for that though. The truth is our MPs made this rod for themselves. Not by fiddling the expenses and being less than perfect (hell how many of us have taken stationary from the office; or put down a lunch with a friend as a 'business lunch' ?

No, they made the rod for their back when they all leapt with enthusiasm onto the 'bash the dole dosser', 'tough on crime', 'mending our broken society', 'bring back respect', 'we all need to tighten our belts' and 'personal responsibility - not state sanctioned idleness' bandwagon.

We are regaled with government ads warning 'benefit cheats' that 'we're onto you!' and 'we know the places you work'. The 'entitlement culture' they keep telling us we have fallen into. The anti-poor, anti-worker, anti-public service, tackling-the-benefits-something-for-nothing-society rhetoric with which they justify inhumane attacks on the poorest in our society, and sell the suffering of whole communities to a bearpit of public opinion that they have helped create.

That...makes me angry.


Let them suffer a little of that disdain they have so liberally scattered on anyone not riding the wave comfortably.