If MPs were subject to the European Working Time directive limit that is coming in for junior doctors of 48 hours, half of all parliamentary activity would grind to a halt. The majority of MPs work long and hard hours representing, scrutinising, legislating and campaigning on behalf of their constituents. The majority have gone into politics wanting to improve the quality of life for those they represent. And most of them earn less than the average salary of a mere director of an NHS Trust.
The headlines of fraud, failure and foolishness must grieve the many honourable MPs who are all tarred with the same brush. But today we face an unprecedented situation: seismic national economic meltdown combined with extensive individual fiscal suspicion. Whilst politicians are always towards the bottom of trustability league tables, unfolding revelations of individual greed are grating against a backdrop of developing personal hardship and the public are left feeing angry and betrayed.
Brown’s current position is untenable. To do nothing (yet) and allow the Standards watchdog to follow up the trail of successive media exposés is allowing a crisis of trust to deepen. Sleaze will continue to flow and the damage will be to local confidence, national democracy and international reputation.
Or Brown could change his mind and authorise an immediate investigation into the expenses of all 646 UK MPs. An expensive exercise that will exonerate some, condemn others but satisfy no one as no resignations will accompany the findings. In any other walk of life there would already have been legal proceedings and firings. But whether through ignorance, weakness or their own deliberate fault the rules on expenses have been abused and what is right and appropriate has got lost in the muddy waters of allowance guidelines.
But there is another option which I call the Zacchaeus opportunity.
When Zacchaeus was faced with the truth, he was transformed. As a tax collector he hadn’t swindled everyone, but his first response to encountering Jesus in the New Testament story was to offer to give half his possessions to the poor. But to those he had defrauded, he would pay back fourfold.
David Cameron rightly talks of economic responsibility, and it needs to start at home. George Osborne cleverly said that Mr King has cut up the PM’s credit card – politicians need to be seen to do t he same to their expense cards. The truth facing politicians today is that they have to act to show that they are aligned with the general public to earn back their trust. This third option would be not be an admission of personal guilt but a public demonstration of identifying with people’s hardship, a willingness for transparency and a mindset of responsibility. A line could be drawn immediately, amidst the excitement of Obama’s entourage arriving, amidst the anger of the G20 protestors that would herald and demonstrate a transformation.
The Zacchaeus Watershed would be the point at which – the day on which - politicians can refer back to as the moment they responded to their public. And to validate this they would bring in the following voluntary charter:
- Until the next election or another set point, politicians would take a pay cut. [Compared to other sectors it is low but this would be part of the review below]
- A short list of of essential expenses will be drawn up, outside of which no claims would be made until the Standards watchdog has reviewed the whole system.
- An upper limit of total income will be set above which expenses are not claimed. Isn’t it lunacy that heirs to multi-million pound inheritances claim the same expense allowance as an ex-serviceman with no significant assets and no other income? MPs' salaries were brought in precisely so those without private means could serve their country in Parliament.
Obama is here on Tuesday and his clarion call was ‘change you can believe in’. As a Conservative I believe in freedom of choice, but that freedom is lost when we don’t put moral chains on our appetites. A voluntary code would respect that freedom. But it would also show the willingness to change by setting limits that could be seen and be believed. It could be a turning point in political history when our representatives proved they were standing by their public, accepting less pay in difficult economic circumstances and remembering as many always do, that they serve to lead.
