MP's Expenses - What's It All About

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If you watch the news, particularly the BBC news, then you will have undoubtedly heard about the controversy surrounding the expenses claimed by Members of the British Parliament (MP's). So what's it all about? Members of Parliament are allowed to claim expenses incurred in the execution of their duties as members of Parliament. They are also allowed to claim expenses for second homes because so many of them live so far away from London. Sounds fair? Well yes except when you see what they have beem claiming expenses for. Things like dog food, broken water pipes under the tennis court, hedge trimmers, ride on mowers, light bulbs... the list of luxuries and every day items goes on and on. And then the second homes: claiming to have a main residence paid for by the tax payer but then renting it out or living in their brother's house whilst claiming expenses for a second home. If you want to see a list of what they claim for you can visiti the BBC News website. The thing is here that the MP's have been allowed to set up their own expenses rules and whilst they don't break them, they go against the spirit of what the expenses are there for. You can't blame the politicians for being greedy, it's human nature although they are supposed to be the guardians of our systems. Morally reprehensible it most certainly is but illegal it is not. What is perhaps worse is the way a certain daily newspaper has reported the story. They have unfortunately decided to sensationalise the story so that they can sell copies of the newspaper. They have decided to highlight the most ludicrous expenses claims, such as dog food, to make a point about greed amongst politicans. What the newspaper does not expressly point out is the fact that it is only one Member of Parliament that has claimed for dog food out of a total of six hundred and fifty. Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have all said that the system of claiming expenses needs to change. It surely does. But what also needs changing is the way newspapers in the UK report their stories. What do you think about the whole affair?