FOR much of my life I have been a voluntary worker for the UK political establishment.
I have assisted during many general and by-elections, been a metropolitan councillor, and remain an active foot-soldier. But never have I been so concerned about the integrity of “my parliament”. The misuse of the expenses system amounts in many cases to outright theft from the public purse or at best a cynical bending of the rules.
Our national political class seems consumed by an arrogance and self interest that beggars belief. Whilst the public suffer the depths of recession, some of our MPs cheat the tax system, claim expenses on absurd items and enjoy gold-plated government pensions. Over the years, I have noticed that the bulk of political activity is less and less involved in law making or managing the country, and more and more a matter of political point scoring amongst the politicians themselves.
In my experience, 90% of all constituency problems are dealt with by our local councillors.
It’s even worse for our Scottish, Northern Irish or Welsh; Westminster-based MPs who also have MP counterparts in their respective home Assemblies or Parliaments who now do most of their constituency work.
Apart from lording it over the English, what do they actually do?
Historically, the Westminster Parliament and the House of Lords were legislative bodies formulating national laws.
Given that successive Westminster governments have voted away so much British sovereignty to the EU Parliament, why do we still need 525 English, 59 Scottish, 40 Welsh and 18 Northern Irish MPs, plus 750 unelected members of the House of Lords?
The issue for debate should be widened from expenses abuse and an independent study made of what MPs actually do and whether they are fully employed.
The more media exposure of MPs’ working practices the better.
Every local constituency should re-examine the fitness of their sitting MP and deselect those who have misused public money.
Les Spencer, Saughall Massie
Golden opportunity
I AM sure that I am not the only person to be taken aback by Esther McVey’s letter (Daily Post, May 27) concerning MPs’ expenses.
For a few seconds you could be forgiven for thinking that it is she rather than myself who is standing as the Prospective Independent MP for Wirral West.
Of course, Miss McVey is standing as the Conservative candidate at the next General Election, so to hear her bemoaning the failure of her colleagues and that of the Government to bring in reforms last year is hard to take seriously.
Isn’t it quite extraordinary to watch how on a daily basis our tired, immoral and totally discredited mainstream politicians are scrapping over who can be seen as the saviour of our Parliament. While they are concerned with cobbling together agendas to clean up our parliamentary system, who is governing on the other big issues of the day such as the economy, terrorism and unemployment?
The voters of this country have a golden opportunity at the next election, which cannot be called a day too soon, to reject the politics of the past and elect independent candidates such as myself who genuinely offer a fresh start and new ideas.
David Kirwan, Prospective Independent MP for Wirral West
