Iain Martin, Deputy Editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe has a post in which he discusses this 'Rotten Parliament' and how it is said that the MPs expenses farce has destroyed faith in politics and politicians.
Mentioning how, on Thursday, MPs were noticable by their absence and that senior MPs and party leaders surfaced to proclaim that it was indeed a disgraceful episode and suggested that it was time everyone 'moved on', Ian Martin says "MPs clearly want to move on. But what about the country?"
He continues "In attempting to deal with the scandal that they created by overclaiming their expenses, MPs in a blind panic did something quite extraordinary and almost without precedent. They invited in an outside authority – Sir Thomas Legg - to judge their actions and in doing so placed him above parliament and by extension the electorate. Until now parliament had only one auditor: the electorate, in regular elections. But who elected Sir Thomas Legg? Not a single soul. Yet somehow this crop of MPs made the Commons accountable to him. They have forgotten the point of their existence." One has to query the phrase 'almost without precedent' in that by placing Sir Thomas Legg above parliament and by extension the electorate, is that not what they did by placing Brussels above parliament with the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty?
Political journalists all appear to believe, from what they write - or what they are told to write, that the expenses scandal is the sole reason trust in politics and politicians has reached the present nadir. I think they will find that the public is fast catching on to the point that our MPs no longer govern us and that Britain is beholden to an external government, one that they have not elected and which is totally unaccountable. The public is also, I believe, becoming more aware about what the possibilities of true local government could mean and offer, were proper devolution of power to be introduced.
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