An excellent piece by James Whyte in the Times today. He makes the case - and I entirely agree - that it would be far better to abolish all expenses and allowances and just pay MPs and MEPs a flat salary, leaving it to them to decide how to allocate their resources. The high frictional compliance costs, unfathomable complexity, lost time and worry generated by the existing system are extraordinary - so why continue?
Even with the best will in the world, I don't doubt that in the years to come, some determined accountant/journalist/campaigner would not find some technicality (or worse) and run to the press after poring over a random selection of MPs accounts. It's a statistical certainty.
But in exchange for the advantage of stress-free flat salaries for the Political Class, how about some flatter taxes for the British Economy?
Do we really want a country that can't function without at least 250,000 accountants ?
And wouldn't most of those same accountants - deep down - have rather learnt something more interesting and instead be engaged in genuine value-adding activity?
