Justifying the Snouts in the Trough

DK has picked a fight with a Labour MP I’ve never heard of – Kerry McCarthy. As part of their debate, Kerry has got slightly indignant about the criticisms that are levelled at her over how much she costs. In a comment on her blog she writes:

For all those who constantly raise the expenditure on staff and office costs - would you rather I didn't employ anyone, didn't follow up on casework, didn't have anyone answer the phones or open the door to the hundreds of people who contact me asking me for help or advice each year?

It has reach a point where I'd answer the question with a yes. Which I rather think is not the answer Kerry is looking for, but there we go.

The problem is this – if we were getting value for money from MPs, there wouldn’t be a problem. Seriously, if your average MP was worth the amount of the taxpayers’ money that they cunt away on an annual basis, then I would be fine with them costing you, me and every other poor fucker who pays tax in this country the massive amounts that they *seem* to require. However, the problem is that most people who operate in Parliament are simply lobby fodder; following the whips in the hope that they get promoted further so they can thrust their porcine faces further into the parliamentary trough. You could get a retarded puppy to traipse through the right lobby every now and again for a fraction of the price of an MP.

Now I could be being harsh about Kerry here – for all I know she is a very good MP for her constituents, and they think that she is worth every penny she costs. But I don’t have the time nor the impetus to research Kerry’s record as an MP - after all, I can't use taxes to employ a researcher. But let me take another example. Let’s look at the record of another MP, and see whether they are worth the amount of money that is being spent on them. To pluck a name from the sky…let’s have a look at Gordon Brown.

Last year, Brown claimed £135,525 in expenses. So just to be clear, that is not the full cost of Gordon Brown. It is just how much he claimed in expenses. And what has he achieved in that year? Presided over the economy going down the shitter. Watched as his government has lost the personal data of millions of voters. Gleefully bribed other politicians to rape our civil liberties. And it goes on. And on. Gordon cost over £130k in expenses, and in return just fucked this country up further.

Imagine paying a business - say buying an expensive car, or a cheap house - £130k. The item you buy doesn't work. Not only does it not work, but the person who sold you the item comes round, kicks you in the knackers, says it is your fault and then says now you should do without. You'd be fucking livid. And yet this is what Gordo - and almost everyone in the Commons - is doing. Year in, year out.

And Gordon Brown came 372nd in the cost rankings of MPs. He cost a small fucking fortune to achieve nothing, but he’s not one of the worst ones in terms of expenses.

That’s what people like Kerry don’t understand. I wouldn’t mind spending the money, if we got something back in return. But we don’t. The vast majority of those people in the Commons are there to boost their own egos, and to rip as much money as possible from the taxpayers. That’s why we are pissed off with you, Kerry. That is why we constantly raise expenditure and office costs. It is because we do not trust you, Kerry, and resent having to spend our hard earned money and get nothing back in return.