Even if the system’s to blame, no one forced MPs to milk it

dr Brian McMullen

The pathetic and arrogant manner in which some of the guilty MPs are trying to bleat innocence only serves to make them unsuitable for the job they claim to do.they actually lost the plot and forgot all about the their employer "'the tax payer"'Fire them and start again.Trouble is most of the canditates with integrity never seem to get elected.

Mike Tranter

I can understand that a provincial MP may need accommodation in London, but why spend more than the barest minimum of my money and that of other taxpayers to furnish and equip it.

Is not the taxpayer entitiled to value for money?

Nick Gulliford

"Perhaps it all seemed like too much hard work".......

Yes, the issue of the conflation of marriage and cohabitation is too much like hard work for journalists, along with the reasons for the absence of neighbourhood statistics and an index to measure changes in 'family breakdown', or 'domestic and social cohesion'.

Put a large spotlight on something and journalists will look at at it, but as for doing hours of spadework in the dark - forget it!

Robert in Palm Harbor, Florida

Does Liddle have a government license to write such hilarious prose? ;) I thought not. Naughty man!
Anyway, I loved the piece. Please keep him around a bit longer?
-Robert

Rupert Fotherington-Smythe

Excellent article. I made the mistake of thinking that Sarah Teather was a tad drippy, but she's not, she's just honest. I think there was a danger of people getting caught up in the slipstream of thinking that all MP's should be brazen and hard-nosed. How refreshing it is, when they aren't.

Rhys Burriss

OPEN PRIMARIES NOW !!!
The MP you mention is very much the exception isn't she? but good for her showing the others up.
Then again - what are you, Mr Liddle, intending to do about it with your pulpit and your connections to leading politicians? It would be helpful if you could propound what seems to me to be the simplest, most effective solution to the crisis - namely OPEN PRIMARIES NOW.
We have ended up with the self-serving kleptocracy of a governing class of incompetents largely through the capture of Parliament over the last 30 years by 'never done a real job' PPE graduates who have inveigled themselves into winnable seats through their contact making and sucking up during their 20s as MPs' bag-carriers and party HQ researchers. No-one over 45 with a serious careeer history even gets a look in.
If all constituencies now conducted OPEN PRIMARIES with all who sign up as 'broadly supportive' of the particular party's ideals were enabled to participate in a genuine pre-selection of that party's candidate then would we not be 90% of the way there to clearing the decks of the present load of incompetents who have so successfully insulated themselves from the consequences their incompetence has inflicted on the rest of the public?
Let the bag-carriers compete and debate with doctors, bricklayers, experienced councillors and JPs, shop assistants - and see who comes through the selection process.
OPEN PRIMARIES NOW!!!! - will you support it?

jack

In aus, MPs who stay away from home on parliamentary business, and that is almost all as parl sits in Canberra, get a fixed daily rate, and can spend it how they like, hotel, club, rent on an apartment, mortgage payments, etc.

much better system

donald fraser

What will the fate of journalism itself be when the spotlight falls upon it? A deep and pro-longed UK economic recession may require radical surgery. The subjective nature of truth in social-engineering is worth considering. What good has business-like hours, freedom of information and all the other reforms done for the Commons? There is an old argument that “the people” need governed for their own good and not as dictated by armies of self-elected commentators. So while journalists have few financial skeletons in their closets, should they be wary of their own medicine?

What happens if free-markets are not the solution? Western journalism is based upon an assumption the freedom of the press and economic prosperity is interdependent. Can journalists police themselves? Of course not, because while sages can debate the subjective nature of truth, journalists believe they have the right to define it. So future tough decisions required on economic management of the UK are in danger of being corralled into a more heavily censored future status quo than would otherwise be required.

A. MacAulay

All politicians make compromises on the way up. Once "power", or even "collective power" has been reached, they are beyond redress and accountability. When the "power" starts to wane, the compromises, moral and financial (pols aren't interested in any others) start coming to light. A sure sign of diminishing power, remember the Major debacle, is when there's enough blood spilled to start a feeding frenzy amongst the journaille. This government is doomed and rightly so.

Edward

The System is NOT to blame.

The extracts I have read from the Green Code seem clear enough to me.

But that's probably why I'm not a politician.

james

Does anyone seriously believe that those senior politicians who are, clearly, quite prepared to cheat and defraud the people - on a continual basis - in order to line their own pockets financially will not be doing the very same things when it comes to their policies - in order to retain, or gain, votes, power and wealth for themselves?

Steve.W

RL – Your title is a perfect summary. Also once again you have a go at the lobby correspondents. Michael White of the Guardian is a bit like Yasmin Alibhai Brown in that he gets so much wrong. Perhaps this is done for a purpose? I just see them both as total fluff.

Colonial

R Burris, thanks, you rationale makes perfect sense. I had always wondered why politicians with an aura of integrity, no nonsense and gravitas, seemed like a theoretical species. Sadly I'm not convinced that, just when the West needed it in a UK PM, David Cameron quite fits the mould. I very much hope I'm wrong. What's the consensus on him?

TomTom

How many of these receipts are genuine ? How many are fabricated or where the goods are returned for refund after tax free cash payout to MP ?

D. G. Macleod

Apropos the lawnmower story; I don't think the foreign correspondent in question was sacked by the BBC. I think he was moved from a plum posting to one of the postings from hell

Nick

I would so, so, so much like to see a website established, where journalists are required by law, under penalty of perjury, to provide at least details of age, sex, sexual orientation, income, religion, voting record, investments, make and model of car, etc. It might make them wake up to the prurient manner in which they preach that everyone else's lives should be a completely open book. After all, journalists can have a big influence on the national agenda - surely the public has a right to know what might be motivating them to act and write as they do?

Helena Mikas

Let's have a Rod Liddle Annual .I mean this . He brings us the news and we can at leats laugh and know hey we aren't crazy .Thanks for more of your brilliant writing crazy .....