If you see an MP wandering around with a stopwatch, this is why...

Stepney

It'll come down to the bus schedules in the end.

If the train journey from my constituency to Liverpool Street is 30 minutes then it's always going to be 35 minutes on the bus to Westminster. Because I always get the bus you see. Don't use taxis.Ever.

Can I have my second home allowance now please?

James W

Rule should be refined, made less arbitrary and less open to re-interpretation by MPS.

Basically they all have constituencies. The mid-point of each constituency should be measured to Westminster. A radius of 50 miles from Westminster should be imposed. The MP of any constituency mid-point that is within this radius will not be entitled to a second home.

The exact location of an MPs home is a complete irrelevance - the rules are better served by removing all personal factors that can be manipulated and abused.

logdon

"The 60-minute rule does have an arbitrariness about it - but that's hardly going to play well with the national audience."

To claim Jobseekers Allowance you have to accept that you are willing to apply for any job within a Public Transport 90 minute journey. That's for a remuneration of £5.25 p.h. (or whatever the minimum wage is now.)

Are MP's above the rules they apply to others? Especially the unemployed whose benefit reaches the grand total of about £60 per week.

Vulture

MY MP, Norman Baker, has never claimed for a second home even though he has one. But then, as an honest man, he is pretty well unique in Westminster.
Let the bastards squeal and flap. They deserve all they get.

jon dee

Poor dears.

Fortunes were made by spivvy fat cat MP's by flipping and avoiding CGT.

The MEC, a shady group of self-interested politicos led by opportunist Bercow and sadly supported by George Young, say no to an inquiry, on the most dubious of grounds.

" Moving on " will not happen until this decision is reversed and the worst culprits are brought to book.

Clegg should be supported by Tories on this issue if they really want to clean-up politics.

Hawkeye

Just apply the existing Inland Revenue rules on travel, benefits in kind, expenses, etc.

The rules are there and are used by the rest of the population every day. MPs would win a lot of kudos if they said that Inland Revenue rules would apply to MPs - no special "House of Commons" exceptions.

Maggie

Very soon they'll be suffering personally from of the hell they've created instead of being cushioned from it by their criminal abuses of the system.
It'll come as an enormous surprise to them that lots of people live in one place and work in another but are clever enough to manage their lives so that they can cope without stealing from the taxpayer. They'll learn that millions of people work shift work and odd hours and have difficulty getting home but they do it in spite of the obstacles MPs have put in their way. They'll find that workers up and down the country are capable of earning a living without taking their wives, husbands and children to the workplace with them - and know that they'd be laughed at for suggesting otherwise. Every excuse MPs give demonstrates their incompetence at managing their own lives so that explains why they're so obviously incapable of managing ours.

2trueblue

Hawkeye, with your line of thought all the way on this. No need to spend time and money setting up committees etc and no 'special' arrangements. It should also be like changes that involve all of us, say in 3mths time. Scrutiny should also continue for real offences which is what happens with our tax situations.

But they will wiggle and squirm, because it is a great gravy train. Look who they elected as the Speaker? Where else can you work and get your employer to pay your mortgage and yet any uplift on the value of the property at resale is yours? Being allowed to flip added tens of thousands to your coffers.

Whinging that on the sweep of a pen things have changed, that the nature of what they do is not fully understood. So what, (to use Ed Balls words) it is what happens to all of us everyday of our lives.

jon dee

Maggie @ 11.19 am.

Your excellent post should be required reading for all MP's.

London Calling

If you see white rabbits running around with stopwatches, this is why…

MP’S are just as loathed as Bankers right now and Westminster has become
one large black hole…

We have been badly managed, government is a business at the end of the day, you cant just change the rules to smooth over the
Cracks…we need true leadership based on trust and faith, at present there is none.

A revolution would solve nothing, only the truth will set us free…the problem is
the truth puts the government in the dock on many issues, top of the list, Taking our country to war in Iraq based on a deliberate fabrication of the truth. Billions of public money wasted through quango’s. Failure to monitor and protect our population from mass immigration and its effects on our communities and public services.

If Neaths recent revelation is anything to go by, the government also guilty of Social engineering for political gains against the opposition, its not in writing but happened anyway. Our Multi-Mess immigration is the consequences of too many, and will continue due to poor government policy.

The stench of treachery looms over Westminster like a rotting carcass, who should the public vote for? A return to Democracy would be a good start...