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The recent crisis in the British House of Commons, regarding the manner in which Members of Parliament have abused their allowance system -- by which the state helps them to afford to live and work comfortably as the elected representatives of the people -- has led to a serious heart-searching about the way government works in the UK.

It has been generally accepted that while the three tiers of government = -- the executive, parliament and the judiciary -- are supposed to have defi= ned powers, meant to balance the exercise of authority in the country, recent happenings show that decision-making has become completely skewed in favour of the executive.

The reason why this has happened is that the members of the British Parliament have, over the years, allowed themselves to be subtly bribed to grant the executive its wishes without opposition. The bribery consisted of the executive closing its eyes to claims by MPs of allowances, far removed from what was envisaged when the idea was first mooted to pay them “expenses” to help them do their work properly.

It was recognised, for instance, that an MP who lived in the countryside needed a place to stay when he came to London to attend meetings of the House and that, therefore, MPs should be assisted with payment of interest on the mortgages on second homes they might buy. But did that mean that an MP could claim for the interest on two houses, “flipping” them so that at one time, one house was his “main residence“ when at another time, he claimed that the same house was his “secondary residence,” all done so that he could maximise what he got from the taxpayer?

The absurd heights to which some British MPs took their expense fiddling can best be gleaned from this report from the newspaper that originally exposed the expenses scandal, the Sunday Telegraph:

“Sir George Young, the [Conservative] MP for North West Hampshire, used [the expenses allowance] to post three short films of himself talking to constituents; …

Sir George bought the second hand video recorder on the internet auction site eBay for £152 in January 2007. He wrote to the [Parliamentary] fee office that the camera was "so I can upload clips on to eBay (sic). It is not used for anything else". Sir George meant to say YouTube (!) ….

“For the past two years, the Old Etonian, ('Eton' is one of the poshest 'public' [that means 'private'] schools in Britain) who is chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee [of the House of Commons], has also claimed the maximum second home allowance on his London flat. By far his biggest outgoing was the interest repayments on the flat he bought for £397,000 in 2005, which averaged more than £1,400 a month.

“Sir George also claims the full rate of council tax on the band G property, which amounted to £1,146 in 2008-09, even though he would be eligible for a discount because it is his second home.

“Other claims [Sir George made] included a £699 washer-dryer (reduced to £500 by the fees office) and a £449 dishwasher (reduced to £375).”

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the “most ludicrous claims made by MPs include:

“*Austin Mitchell: claimed 67p for a packet of Ginger Crinkle biscuits and 68p for a jar of Branston pickle.

*Andrew Smith: claimed for a 50p carrier bag from Ikea.

*Derek Wyatt: claimed 75p for two scotch eggs and £1.79 for five mini pork pies. The following month he spent £1.90 on a [single] pork pie.

*Hazel Blears: claimed £2.50 for a Kit Kat from the minibar of the Sherlock Holmes Hotel.

*Andrew Rosindell: claimed £1.31 for a jar of jellied eels.

*Cheryl Gillan: claimed £4.47 for pet food. It was made up of a £3.69 bag of Senior Chicken dry meal meant for older dogs, and two 39p cans of Cesar chicken and turkey meat.

John Greenway: billed the taxpayer for £3 93 for eight sachets of mulled wine in the run-up to Christmas 2004.

*David Heathcoat-Amory: claimed more than £380 for horse manure [shit] for his garden. [Lord have mercy! Horseshit?!]

*John Reid (former Home Secretary): claimed £9.50 for two ice cube trays, £1.68 on 20 coat hangers and £7 on a "magic mop".  Continued    Source: Cameron Duodu

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