ANY REAL CONSEQUENCES

The fact that three Labour MPs and one Tory peer are facing charges under the Theft Act over their expenses claims should be more shocking than it is. What's more shocking is the faint whiff of tokenism that appears to surround the whole sorry saga - barely four - what about the rest of them?

At the end of the day theft is theft, and the law is the law. Any potential use of parliamentary privilege as a defense to allegation so theft is clearly unacceptable in the eyes of most ordinary people. Most ordinary people would end up ruined, sacked, imprisoned and unemployed if they fiddled their expenses on the same scale as some of the MPs at Westminster.

Employers would seek to recover their costs and their loses via the courts - it is important to remember that this is public money we are talking about. Any claims of ignorance or misunderstanding should be treated with a serious degree of scepticism as should the much heard plaintive bleat that everything that was claimed for was within the rules.

Theft at the end of the day is theft. Any MP who refuses to hand back any money they illegally gained should at minimum, if leaving the commons have the difference deducted from the lump sum they recieve when they leave parliament or have their assets sequestrated.

Gordon's Government was pretty quick of the mark to use existing legislation to seize Icelandic assets and Mrs Thatcher's Government was equally quick enough to seize the assets of various Trade Unions in the 1980's - so why not the assets of various MPs?

An ordinary member of the public guilty of mortgage fraud would be unable to use the defense of saying that they payed the money back to avoid any dire consequences, so why should MPs be able to get away with it? Even those MPs who are entirely guiltless will have a tough time on the doorsteps with voters and they would be best advised to forget about trying to defend an institution that has about as much of a moral reputation as piano player in a New Orleans brothel.

We are in for an interesting election and hopefully the electorate will remember what has occurred and duly exercise its options at the ballot to remove those MPs (regardless of Party) from office - if the voters do so then they will have done the country a great service.