Democratic oafs

Jan 25 2009 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

WHAT a wonderful week for democracy in the free world! And, no, I’m not talking about the inauguration of Barack Obama.

As thrilling and inspirational as that was, it was events closer to home that had me punching the air with delight.

Cynical attempts by MPs to keep their expenses secret has been a bugbear of mine for years.

And this week, just as it looked as though they were about to make themselves exempt from Freedom of Information requests, they got cold feet.

Whether it was democracy in action or an attack of the heebee jeebees, we’ll never know.

But they were clearly twitchy enough to realise — albeit at the eleventh hour — that drawing a veil over how they spend our money simply wouldn’t wash.

What’s even more astonishing, however, is that the sudden U-turn came about after pressure from the most unlikely champions of honesty, fair-play and openness . . . the Tory Party.

Gordon Brown had hoped to make MPs exempt from FOI requests, thus concealing potentially embarrassing revelations about exactly where £93m of taxpayer-funded allowances go.

He thought he had Tory backing for the new law, but David Cameron pulled the rug from beneath him in spectacular fashion at the last minute.

The Tory leader insisted: “To exempt MPs from the FOI Act would be completely wrong. They should be treated the same as everybody else.”

Hang on a minute, shouldn’t Labour — the supposed party of the people — be saying precisely that?

As a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, it’s slightly unnerving to find myself not only agreeing with the leader of the opposition, but applauding him for taking such a decisive stance. There must be some sort of medication I can take for this.

It’s unexpected too, given that the Tories have potentially as much to lose as Labour by exposing MPs’ perks.

Barely a week goes by without some honourable member being caught with their financial trousers down.

Remember the furore over the publication of the so-called John Lewis list and how MPs squirmed with embarrassment when we discovered how much they were splashing out on plasma TV screens and posh furniture at our expense? That might never have been made public if Gordon Brown’s exemption clause had been in place.

Most people I know think the second homes allowance afforded to MPs is far too generous. They’re allowed to spend £2400 a year on furnishings.

It might not sound much, but these are second homes. How many people spend that amount on furnishings every year?

If it were up to me, I’d abolish the John Lewis list and replace it with the Woolworths list.

Then there was the scandal over the now sacked Tory MP for Old Bexley, Derek Conway, whose son Freddie was probably the UK’s highest earning student thanks to the old man paying him £50,000 a year as a “researcher”.

His eldest son Henry — a part-time student — was also on the payroll to the tune of £32,000.

Examples such as these highlight why we ought to know what every single penny claimed by MPs has been spent on.

The fact that it took a Tory leader to point this out to the Prime Minister is surely a sign that Labour has lost its way.