Mapping expenses

Bruce, UK

Now can some one overlay a "safe seat" heat map to determine the robber barons from the petty crooks?

I wonder if the people's flag will be the only thing that is deepest red about Labour constituencies?

Forlornehope

You would expect that the further the constituency is from Westminster the higher the expenses would be. It does look a bit like that. Presumably the NI ones are the ones who don't turn up!

se1man

ahhh... the disinfectant of sunlight, at last. Great map.

I dare not draw attention to any regional stereotypes highlighted by the map.

Quite right that this is the sort of thing that should be automatically available on a parliamentary website (and others).

And anyone should be able to cut the data in all kinds of ways: by party, by attendance records, by category of expenditure, by date... whatever.

And the whole thing should be equipped with click-thru functions so that we can drill down to individual expense items.

Too much to ask? Sounds like a lucrative contract for some IT company like Capita. Uh-oh.

Chuck Unsworth

Very nice indeed. Needs an overlay with the political party allegiances showing. I'd guess the majority red is Labour territory - and that is a very simple and telling message

Anand

Unfortunately a lot of the Heat is misleading, as Travel Costs are included in the totals. Meaning unsurprisingly the Scottish constituencies come out pretty high.

What would be more representative is a heat map with Travel costs excluded, then we can really see where the troughers lie.

David Ossitt

Can you give a link to this map please.

Pete Hoskin

David Ossitt: the link is on the words "heat map" in my post above.

Stephen

Several coffee housers rightly point out that distance from London will skew the map. Some coffee houses make the assertion that Labour MP's are worse offenders that other MP's. Maybe, but there are some Tory expense claims that need explaining. Even when travel expenses are included Bob Neil (Bromley and Chislehurst) claims £13,000 more than John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross). Why? Let's not jump to too many prejudice based assumptions before considering all the evidence. The truth is that there are honourable honourable Members on all sides of the house. And there are dishonourable honourable members. Party affiliation is no predictor of integrity.

donald fraser

I’d like to think this map confirms my view that Harrogate is the “Northern Anomaly”. Its red status stands out in a sea of yellow. Unfortunately my own political activity and background is part of that story. To quote Wikipedia: “In experimental research, the term observer effect (also see Hawthorne effect) refers to changes that the act of observing will make on the phenomenon being observed.”

I’ve been based in Harrogate since 1992 and always “big mouthed” about my political views. I cannot enter politics because I have a psychiatric medical record. However because I am the eldest of a Grant and Fraser clan (Lord Fraser of Carmyllie is my uncle) my continual clap-trap will remain part of our local anomaly. At a dinner party last weekend a guest from Leeds expressed her surprise at learning from me Harrogate had not been a Conservative seat since 1997. I could pass many observations on how our Lib-Dem MP is wrecking our local economy. However his travel claims are certainly valid because there is no jumble sale, local gala or hospice event that passes without his attendance.

David Ossitt

donald fraser

"I cannot enter politics because I have a psychiatric medical record".

Donald; I would have thought that your health record should not be a bar to you entering politics, on the contrary one would think it a distinct advantage.

Pete Hoskin; thank you.

JohnAnt

What occurs to me is that we are not getting value for money if Scottish MPs (NW Scotland etc) are costing the English taxpayers so much in so many different ways - their views on English legislation are unwanted, and their decisions in the H of C benefit their constituents only in small degree, as so much has now been devolved to Edinburgh.
Away with them!!

Lady A

this map, with travel expenses filtered out and party allegiances somehow overlaid, would truly be a picture worth a thousand expense claims!

donald fraser

David Ossitt

Thanks for your encouragement to enter politics. I have only been in court once. It was to plead “not guilty” on a speeding fine. Charges were dropped. When Scotland's senior law officer (my uncle) ordered my arrest at Heathrow airport in 1992 I faced a tribunal inside a mental health unit but won my release quickly. I was a young idealist responding to Robert Maxwell’s European newspaper’s “call to arms” (to join the Croatian National Guard). Three days inside was enough to kill the ardour. I would not wish to dwell on the possible legal irregularity surrounding my detention that perhaps saved my life.

However the mass media is a pernicious beast. I admire Cameron because he courts exposure to the online world with real conviction. However I hedge my position with my resolution to enter UK politics only once “narrowcasting” (no compromise with prime time controllers) is a viable election platform. That would require skilful use of legal action and public relations to ensure a “no broadcasting” electoral campaign was understood and respected. I am an Englishman (only Scots by birth) so don’t let my name deceive you. Threats to the union stimulate no identity crisis because I could always further my democratic inclinations through a Spanish-speaking parliamentarian system.

While I run various apolitical networks in a voluntary capacity, it is paid for in part by the income support payments I receive as a registered mental patient. I am not tempted to quit this quiet haven of comparative financial and legal safety because it allows me to talk politics, albeit on a small scale. When pro-active in mental health networks under John Major, I met dozens of activists who might still make fine (mainly left-wing) parliamentarians. After my rehabilitation I moved to the right-wing, but the thorn remains. A psychiatric record is nearly always combined with a period of state payments “on the sick”. I believe “mental health activists” (out of the millions of registered mental patients) provide better value for money on state benefits than parliamentarians with large expense accounts. Openness and transparency is what journalists tell the electorate to want but we are still on the rebound from Cold War secrecy. It will end abruptly if the current economic turmoil deepens, as it probably will.

Am wrong I cling to benefit payments? What might full disclosure mean for me? It is a thin line between right and wrong on what should be declared or claimed, as parliamentarians are discovering. Since my passion is nuclear science (specifically space rockets) no medical reviewer is going to reject my schizophrenic status if I object. Yet I would become a job-seeker tomorrow if it gave me any realistic chance to ever enter UK politics. For that the state need only offer to erase my psychiatric record and gaps in my work history. Despite my comparative poverty, my private political world (online and offline) has no statutory requirements for openness and is of little consequence outside of Harrogate. However ideas and intellect do not require wealth to sustain them and the current system utterly fails to propagate what I and others could contribute, in a time of crisis.

Wilhelm

Why dont they just cut off Scots, Welsh , Northern Irish MPs off from westminster, thats about 100 MPs, thus saving millions.