I despair.
I live in the West Ham constituency. Which is in London, and is, in fact, blessed with a Tube station. Several of them, which is jolly handy in case of signal failure and fire and flood and wasps* and stuff. And, according to those lovely people at Transport for London, from West Ham Tube station to Westminster is all of twenty two minutes.
Minutes, not hours or days.
And you don’t even have to change lines.
So why, I ask, in the tones of pained dismay I seem to be adopting so often these days, has my MP seen fit to claim fifteen thousand, eight hundred and eighty nine pounds in Second Home Allowance in 2007-2008? And food. Why in the name of all that’s Holy are you claiming for food? Everyone else has to pay for food out of their salary, why are you somehow exempt from this?
I can’t help but think that even at Transport for London’s “let’s gouge the commuters for all they’re worth and then go on strike and make the buggers walk anyway,” prices, an annual season ticket and the odd black cab after late night sittings would have been cheaper.
She’ll probably come back with some utter tripe about “West Ham is classed as an outer London constituency, so the rules say I can.” To which my response will be a brisk “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Especially when you are paid approximately three times as much (plus expenses) as your average constituent.
Believe me, if the second party round here wasn’t Gorgeous George’s trainwreck, I’d be voting for them in heartbeat.
Thou shalt not grind down the widow and the orphan, or oppress the worker, Lyn, it’s a sin that cries to Heaven for vengeance.
*I once got to my local tube station only to be told that it was closed due to wasps. Makes a change, I suppose.
June 20th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Urgh… these MP’s all need to be taken outside and spanked. I think that if they live within a 1 hour commute from Westminster then they should not be entitled to claim a second home allowance. As for claiming for food and suchstuff…. it seriously pissed me off!
June 20th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
wow … I’ve been watching this with a little fascination (can you have a little fascination?) … I wouldn’t say our pollies are any less immoral just that they’re not as amazingly spectacular about it ….
June 20th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
“The wrong kind of wasps” for a Tube station, I suppose.
I think Auntie D is very generous with her “1 hour of Westminster” rule. When I lived in London it was a 1-and-a-half-hour slog to the office (on a good day) from my only humble home (and for some peculiar reason, the best part of 2 hours back again). No meal allowances, not even a season ticket loan… and you only got paid for the hours you were physically there… so if you were late (no excuse was valid) you simply didn’t get paid.
June 20th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
You used a footnote. My undying love just went up a notch.
People ask me whether I’m going to (have to) switch nationalities. NO SIR. Even though our politics are also quite shameful (that’s mostly because Dutch people tend to be crazy and couldn’t see a coalition crisis coming if it rang the doorbell first).
June 20th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
You’re right I am very generous. I think it is a fair cut of point though. but today I think all the politicians who have lied and cheated their way out of cash should be flogged at the newly opened Marble Arch fountains
June 21st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I know people who commute to London from the arse end of Kent. “Within an hour of Westminster” is very generous.
VA, I use footnotes a lot. I’d be a Terry Pratchett fangirl if all the squeeing didn’t give me a headache.
Miss Lisa, I think the word you need is “brazen,” not “spectacular.”
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I am a East Ender by adoption – West Ham fan for 20+ years and a resident of various East London locations when I lived in London. I couldn’t understand the London MP’s claiming expenses for somewhere that is an easy tube, bus or taxi ride from Westminster. They just used expenses as a way of topping up their salaries – they’ve admitted as much. Sack ‘em all and start from scratch. No more professional politicians allowed. 3 terms max and out.