Unhappy MPs
A year ago, in the run up to elections, the scandal in the UK was over reimbursing legislators for dodgy expenses (feeding koi in an estate's pool?). In response Parliament set up an independent agency to monitor and approve expense payments to MPs. Now the agency is under fire for not not supporting the work of legislators and spending too much money itself (corruption might be cheaper?).And here's a trivia question for your students: What is meant by identifying Sir George Young as "the leader of the House of Commons?"
Commons leader attacks MPs' expenses watchdog as latest claims are published
Sir George Young, the leader of the house of Commons, today delivered a devastating critique of the expenses watchdog as it published the latest tranche of claims, naming and shaming 125 MPs who had claims rejected…
Overall, the rejected claims amounted to just £15,352 out of the total £3.64m expenses bill for September and October.
The number of MPs rejected has fallen substantially compared with the first four months of the new scheme, which was introduced to clean up the expenses system after the scandal that rocked parliament in 2009…
Young published his official response to a consultation on the future of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) moments before the latest tranche of expenses was revealed.
In it, he accused Ipsa of "failing" to support MPs in their work, and said it had "unsatisfactory features" which are "at best distracting, and at worst impeding".
He called for widespread reforms, but insisted Ipsa should remain independent of the House of Commons…
The paper will curry favour with backbenchers who are furious about the bureaucracy and higher costs of the new expenses system. Some are calling for it to be entirely scrapped and replaced with a daily allowance for MPs to end the publication of receipts and a perceived "witch hunt" against them…
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Labels: corruption, legislature, legitimacy, politics, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:48 AM
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