“take Me To Your Leader!” By Cameron Duodu

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".

*Geoff Hoon (former Defence Secretary): claimed £190 for servicing his ride-on lawnmower.

*Keith Vaz (former Europe Minister and currently, chair of the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons): claimed £255 for 17 silk cushions.

*Lembit Öpik: He claimed £30 for two fancy dress wigs from Hamleys, including a receipt for the "Mother of All Wigs", which cost £19.99, and a £9.99 "Film star Wig".

Bob Blizzard: He claimed 39p for a single paper clip.”

Another MP claimed for “lavatory seats”. And so it goes on. You get the picture. The hullabaloo created by these revelations has resulted in the resignation of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr Michael Martin, who was responsible for policing the “fees” claims system. He not only closed his eyes to most of the abuses, but resisted attempts by the media to obtain details of the claims, under the Freedom of Information Act. Britons would never have got to hear of these claims, left to Mr Martin and his committee alone. So he's fallen on his sword.

The Martin debacle is the consequence of a subversion of the system under which the executive and parliament are supposed to police each other. The Speaker, a Labour MP, allowed MPs to milk the taxpayer. So some MPs were afraid to attack him too violently, if and when -- and he did so frequently = -- he showed partiality in calling on MPs to speak in debates in which the = executive could be badly embarrassed. He also allowed the government whips to dictate the business of the House and thus, if involuntarily, undermined attempts by courageous backbenchers to raise issues not palatable to the executive. Backbenchers' motions, in particular, had a difficult passage if the Speaker was secretly opposed to them.

But Martin's departure must not be the end of the matter. The public is vociferously calling for a more open political system, whereby, for instance, ordinary voters can have more say in what their MPs do in Parliament, in-between elections. For that is the period in which, as has been claimed, [Members of] Parliament can do anything, except change a man into a woman. And, at present, you cannot force them to resign until a new elections comes along. People want the public to have the power to “recall” an MP who is not performing to standard. There is also a move to get MPs selected through primary elections, as in the USA.

These moves may, of course, get nowhere, for the current British populace, which not only allowed Tony Blair to take Britain to war but returned him to power after he lied his way into Iraq, is far too tolerant of executive dictatorship. Right now, they seem to be allowing the Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown, to set up an “enquiry” into Britain's part in the invasion of Iraq, which can sit in secret! In fact, at first, Brown wanted the enquiry to sit entirely in secret, to whitewash Blair.

This was necessary, he said, because otherwise the military might be compromised. But, to his embarrassment, the topmost British military officers broke their usual silence over political matters and stated publicly that they'd rather prefer the enquiry to be held in public! Unabashed, Brown agreed that only part of it would now be held in secret. Disgraceful. The reason? Brown wants to protect the lies of Tony Blair from being further exposed -- because he, Brown, kept quiet when Blair was lying. .

I hope that now, you can guess where people like our own former Speaker, Mr Sekyi-Hughes, and our current MPs (clamouring for car loans) and former Ministers and MPs (embroiled in disputes over who has taken what official cars and not returned them) got their quaint ideas about what the taxpayer owes them from. Our Speakers wear soft, patent leather shoes, like those of British Speakers! Well, the British, at least, have begun their reforms. When will ours begin?

You never hear of our MPs asking the executive really tough questions at “Question Time” these days. Nor do we hear of charged debating over the estimates of Ministries and public bodies. Armed robbery is rife, but no committee has called in the Inspector-General of Police to ask him what he doing about it. Parts of Accra are getting flooded so badly that people are drowning there. Yet our municipal authorities are allowed to go about their business in their usual comatose way. Where are the questions and motions under “certificates” of urgency.

Tell me -- if a Martian landed in Accra today, what would he say to the first person he saw? “Take me to your leader!” He would demand. Our problems are saying the same thie thing.