MPs and their expenses

Imagine you have a kid. And you suspect that your kid is holding something that they shouldn’t be holding – perhaps a stolen toy, a bowie knife, some crack cocaine; whatever it is that kids play with these days. Your child says “no, don’t want to show you what is in my hands.” What do you, quite naturally, immediately expect? That the child is guilty of something; that the child has done something wrong.

Which is the position we have found ourselves in with our MPs. Their refusal to show the nation what they have been spending money on has led most of us, quite naturally, to assume that they have something to hide. There are some who – farcically – are defending our politicians’ outrageous behaviour. These arguments have been nicely dealt with here and here, so I don’t have a great deal to add to the debate. What I would like to stress, though, is this.

Actually, we are not asking for a great deal. We are simply asking them to publish their. Not reduce their expenditure (although this hopefully will follow), not limit them or their powers in anyway – just simply publish details of what they are spending our money on. Surely this is not too much to ask? Well, judging by the cross-party alliances, the vicious back-stabbing and the sudden government U-turn that we all witnessed yesterday, yes it is apparently too much to ask.

Politicians spend small fortunes on focus groups and surveys to find out why people don’t trust them. They spunk away further fortunes on campaigns and gimmicks to make people trust them. The reason why people don’t trust them is partly down to issues like this – they are like the child in my analogy; frantically trying to hide something. And the more they try to hide it, the more clear it becomes that they are feeling guilty about something.