The Sky Has Fallen In

Sophia Pangloss

I too am in despair Martin, at a culture so venal and self-serving that they see the 'events' of the weekend as a tragedy to be apologised for. the 'events' are we the public finding out!
Luckily I have another electoral option, that of supporting the SNP. That's the only way to break the whole Westminster trough of mediocrity up. Start afresh, both in Scotland and England.

Pete, Scotland

What a typically socialist, snobbish statement to make.

What difference to me if somebody steals £1500 from me, the tax payer, to clean their humble shared landing or a tennis court, it makes absolutely no difference. They have taken money from me without my consent.

Unless you think that Socialist theft is in some way more moral than Capitalist theft.

I work long shift hours and come from a generational family of miners so it is a big step for me to start advising everybody I know to never again vote for Labour or any Socialist government again.

What a mess they make!

Someone convince me otherwise?

Bryan Dunleavy

I draw some cold comfort from your admission that you have reached the point of despair that I reached some time ago, but please don't describe the politicians you name as having integrity. Clearly this is the one quality they do not have.
They may be intelligent, witty, good company, hard working and gifted in other ways, but they have been proved to be venal and this is one quality that cannot be permitted in a politician in a democracy that is built upon unwritten trust.

Ronnie

Martin, a question.

Given all that has been going on, even in the past six months, within the government, the Labour party and now Parliament as a whole, do you think that those who complain about the lack of objectivity within the main stream media may have a point?

Our entire political system seems to have become a house of cards during the last 20-25 years and yet this final(?) nadir has taken you all by surprise.

mac

Fair and objective comment until the deliberately partisan last sentence which demonstrates yet again your unwillingness to accept the mendacity of a parliamentary Labour party which governs via a cabinet in which virtually every member - including the Prime Minister, Chancellor, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Justice Secretary are tainted (and we await news of other stalwarts such as the delightful Ballses).

It's the mote in your own eye you should be considering, not Hogg's moat.

mac

and the beam.

Gawain

Party affiliation has nothing to do with this affair. This stinking morrass holds up a mirror to the whole of our political system and the whole of our society. As a Conservative, what is very difficult to understand is how MPs who experienced the scandals of the 90s could have been so bone headed as to think it was acceptable to claim tax funded allowances for moat cleaning, chandeliers and horse manure. Don't they even have a sense of irony ?

And yet, are those MPs any worse than BBC millionares exercising their moral outrage whilst creaming off a fancy lifestyle on the back of a highly regressive tax ? Or bonus earning bankers who were happy to let their banks fail in the knowledge that the taxpayer would rescue them. Or anyone else who has fiddled an expenses form, welfare claim or tax return ? There is a large whiff of hypocrisy in all of this.

Perhaps the lesson of all of this is that the taxpayers' tolerance is, after all, limited and in the new era we will all have to learn to expect less from them and the state.

Mike Kingscott

Sorry Martin, I just can't see how you can use the word "integrity" in front of troughing MPs...

solomon hughes

The stature of Hazel Blears and Michael Gove ?

Ian C

Those of you who think it is equivalent for a moat to be cleaned as cash used to pay for a dubious items are technically correct.

But you miss the point.

Even those with wealth have been shown to be milking the rotten system when they have the means to pay for it themselves. The combination of their wealth and their consciences should have steared them clear of such sordid claims.

Those without the wealth had their consciences only to stear them. When the system is encouraging the abuse, that is much harder when the cash is important.

Both are in the wrong but the wealthy have been shown to be much more greedy. That is the point and I have sympathy with Martin's view.

Even if I did not sympathise with the view the reality is that this is how the wider public would view those wealthier MP's claiming such sums.

John Lea

'To see politicians of the stature and integrity of Hazel Blears...' HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

David Bouvier

As opposed to harbouring an MP and Minister for TOURISM who charged £25,000 for personal security in Soho!

Hogg apparently denies it, and it is not clear to me that all the Telegraph claims stand up.

Even if it is true, on what basis do you prefer the party of Follett to the party of Hogg.

Which party has fought tooth-and-nail to prevent the FOI being applied?

Wily Trout

What are your definitions of the words 'decent' and 'integrity'? Are you doing a Humpty Dumpty on us?

Simon Denis

Better a moat than plugs and porn.

mac

Ian c:

So we should acquiesce in double standards, should we? Let's applaud the virtuous Speaker Martin; as he's not from a 'wealthy' background his failings are much more acceptable. He's really a "victim" in La-La-Labour culture, is that it?

And let's also determine acceptable levels of integrity, honesty and equality according to income. Oh, hang on, Ms Harman is already implementing this sort of discrimination, isn't she?

Archie

Wish I had a moat! I'd clean it myself!

De Rigueur

When I worked in the Czech Republic some Czech chap wrote a script that included a scene where a man poured ordure over his neighbours shiny new car. It was supposed to be his reward for eating the product and therefore gaining "power and intelligence".
As the Czech chap's creative director I thought how can this work since the "idea" seemed to me to portray the "hero as a thoroughly despicable person. But then the young "creative" said: "You see, in the Czech Republic it's not the we want what you've got - it's that we just hate that you've got it.
Natch the script was never presented.
But it does seem to sum up the mean spirit which is at the heart of socialism.
Hope you don't build a moat round your castle Martin - that is - when you've saved up enough to buy one.

IronDuke

Don't pay them anything, not a penny, no wage, no expenses, no allowances, nothing. Let us return to a ruling class that practiced business and commerce, commanded men under fire and kept the Christian faith.

Edward

"To see politicians of the stature and integrity of Hazel Blears (and the rest)..."
Do you realize how such a statement questions your integrity/intelligence/powers of observation as a political "commentator" ?
Or were you attempting satire ?

The above "politicians" are "pygmies" in a nation crying out for "Zulus".

With respect, you need to distance yourself from the piggery.

Edward

The subtitle of your blog is "Dispatches from Enemy Territory".
Where is "Enemy Territory".
Westminster by any chance ?

Pat

A trivial point I know, but does restoring a moat constitute better value for money than the employment of security guards, since both are theoretically for the same purpose?

hadrian

A crowd of rowdy, Glasgow Celtic football fans came clamouring on a very packed bus this evening. Many of them ( blokes in their 30s/40s) loudly and unashamedly proclaimed their refusal to pay for tickets with the justification that 'if our politicians can do it, hey, so can we!' ( bowdlerised version)
Yup, we are in a national, shameful condition and mess.

Fergus Pickering

What you'ragainst,it appears, is that Douglas Hogg lives in a castle with a moat i.e. that he is rich. But is he richer than Sean Woodward, or Tony Blair, come to that? I don't like rich people either, but which MPs are poor exactly? Oh yes. The speaker is poor, or he was poor. Or he says he was poor. Let's fill up the commons with the likes of Gorbals Mick. THAT should do it. I knew Hogg years ago, not well. Seemed a terrible shit to me.

Praguetory

This is ridiculous. Parliament sits for less than half of the year yet the second home allowance exceeds average annual salaries and over 150 MPs max out. Before we got to the detail, there was prima facie evidence of extravagance at best. But you're right about political journos looking stupid.

Rhoda Klapp

A pretty decent lot? Thieves and conmen may be quite congenial. We rely on our noble press to see through it. Rely in vain, apparently. We have ended up in a situation where the MPs and journos conspire against the public. Congratulations on having been part of it for so long oblivious of what was going on.

Martin, you live in a world of self-delusion. I may have mentioned it before.

robert

"The stature and integrity of hazel Blears and Andy Burnham"? Are you a complete moron (I note that you wrote for the now defunct City Limits...)? They were "dragged into this" were they? By whom?
They dragged themselves into it by their corrupt, grasping, hypocritical and craven behaviour.
You need a dictionary.

magneto

Hazel Blears - integrity?

Ben Elford

In all of the outrage, disgust, and the fear for our democracy that these revelations evoke, there is a further disturbing factor.

Some of these stories in the Daily Telegraph seem (to me) to rely on exaggeration and selection in order to make better headlines, or to make MPs look as ridiculous as possible.

Let nobody misunderstand me. Corruption, fraud and gross venality have been uncovered. But the scale has been distorted by including quite a number of claims which as far as one can tell could turn out to be justifiable, and some which could well have been genuine mistakes which the fees office should have dealt with appropriately.

This in itself is dangerous for democracy. It encourages people to stay away from the polling stations. It strengthens the arm of the less desirable minority parties.

elixelx

"We blithely say that politicians are despised even more than journalists..." Martin Bright

Martin, I beg to differ, TWICE, with your opening sentence:

ONE: I personally--and I'm sure most sane people feel the same way--despise journalists and politicians equally. It's really difficult to separate NUMBER ONE from NUMBER TWO and say which is more odoriferous!

TWO: "WE" do not say this "blithely"; "WE" say this with a burning sense of betrayal in the depths of our beings that YOU--that's YOU, Martin, and your Grub Street Gang, along with the titled and untitled and un-entitled schnorrers and gonifs (beggars and thieves!) in Lower and Upper Houses--that's the whole jing-bang LOT of you, are venal, corrupt, low-class trash!

Have you seen the little piggies, with their piggy wives...?

That ranted, what do you make, Martin, of your brother-in-socialist-arms, Steven Fry, telling the BBC that it's overpaid journalists who are stirring up a hornet's nest against those poorly-paid politicians...? He was dressed in formal dinner jacket and bow tie at the time....

blueharry

'To see politicians of the stature and integrity of Hazel Blears, Andy Burnham, James Purnell, Cheryl Gillan and Michael Gove dragged into this makes me very sad indeed.'

None of the above have, or had, any stature or integrity outside your imagination.