MP expenses - the aftermath

So MPs have been ripping off the tax payer for decades, the appetite for sackcloth and ashes seems to know no bounds, today in the guardian both major parties are demanding repayment of expenses now deemed over the top - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/13/party-leaders-threaten-mps-over-expenses.

This stinks

I strongly agree that the rules needed changing and that abuse was widespread. I had hoped that the crisis in confidence would lead to broader changes than it has alas not, just a load of hand-ringing and blaming the leaders of the party in charge.

Quite aside from the fact that MPs are being asked to pay back expenses that were previously approved, something i find quite troubling, i see a simple solution to this issue.

1 - pay MPs more
2 - dont let them run there own constituency offices

1 - mps salaries are pitiful given the jobs they do, £60k is less than my friends in sales were earning 3 years out of university, less than a deputy headmaster, maybe half the salary of a top level council executive. Yes the pension is great, yes the benefits rock and yes, people do not (and should not) get into politics for the money but c'mon pay peanuts get monkeys, and where they're intelligent monkeys they'll find a way to get extra peanuts too.

2 - why can't the constituency offices be run by the civil service, leaving the constituency party to deal with elections ONLY, with those runny the local offices owing their loyalty to someone other than the chaps who's expenses they file.

There we go, martin saves the world in two easy steps again. Next week, middle east peace. Seriously, i have a solution to this one too and its a doozey ;)