If MPs reject the expenses report they will regret it, fast
There is a report in this morning's Times which suggests that members of the Estimate Committee are considering throwing out Sir Thomas Legg's independent report on MPs expenses as they think it has exceeded its remit.
My response to this is, are they insane? Part of the reason the furore of a few months subsided in the way it did is because an independent report had been commissioned. Do they honestly think that the public are going to stand for them rejecting the report, whatever the grounds?
My experience is that many non-politically involved people are absolutely disgusted by the expenses scandal and they will not be interested in the arguments or nuance of this, all they will hear is that the MPs have rejected the independent report.
If they go down this road they will regret it and very quickly. They should accept it with good grace and quietly follow the recommendations.
Posts
3 comments:
and my reaction is...
a speculative report in a newspaper?
I'll wait to see what actually happens before making judgements.
MPs wouldn't dare. They really wouldn't. No MP, no matter how greedy and self-centred they are, knows that the party whips won't less them screw this up.
"They should accept it with good grace and quietly follow the recommendations."
Isn't there a trouble, however, that if MPs simply accept anything the report throws their way, there's a remote chance that they might actually be doing the wrong thing?
I'm suspicious of the idea that "Independent bodies" are cure-alls. They're just as prone to mistakes as MPs.
Post a Comment