Excellent article form Seumas Milne on the ‘snouts in trough’ controversy.
The contrast between Labour’s socialist MP for Luton North, Kelvin Hopkins, who commutes to work and claimed £36.45 of his annual £4,800 food allowance, and the neighbouring New Labour MP, Margaret Moran, who “flipped” her second home allowance between Luton, Southampton and London and is now repaying a £22,500 under duress, could not be clearer.
In conclusion:
Breaking the domination of the main parties would be welcome if it opened up politics to the anti-war, pro-equality, anti-privatisation majority disenfranchised by New Labour. In current circumstances, that looks highly unlikely. But what the Westminster crisis and expected electoral meltdown might encourage is a challenge to the centralised grip that has squeezed out internal party democracy, in Labour in particular, and created a parliament full of careerist clones. That’s a change that will be essential if a remoralisation of parliament is to make itself felt across society as a whole.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/13/mps-expenses-reform
