Chocolate or Broccoli

It seems that Alan Johnson, Health Minister, has suddenly become a radical reformist. He's calling for the PM to allow a referendum on electoral reform. Odd that Johnson has only become a reformist since the expenses row erupted and the public started calling for, well electoral reform. Strange coincidence also that he has chosen a moment when the future of the Labour party leader is in doubt. I don't remember him being much of a crusader for reforms last year. In fact I seem to remember his party doing everything it could to prevent expenses data from being published and maintain the staus quo. Great idea to have a referendum though. Lets ask the public whether they are in favour of electoral reform. That could go either way couldn't it! A bit like asking a class of five-year-olds whether they prefer chocolate or broccoli.

I'm really looking forward to Elliot Morely demonstrating that his £16,000 expenses claim in monthly instalments over almost two years, for a mortgage that didn't exist, was a "mistake". I notice he uses the word "mistake" and not "accident". This sounds like some Bill Clinton style verbal gymnastics to me. According to WordWeb, a mistake is a, "wrong action attributable to bad judgement or ignorance or inattention". So that would be like me making a spelling "mistake". It would be due to ignorance, inattention, or even bad judgement. It would still be my fault of however, and I would still be responsible for it. I should have used the spell checker. Not much of a defence is it. I think Morely is a dihonest scum-bag, in case you were in any doubt.

I will be disappointed if no MP actually gets convicted of fraud. I notice that a member of the public is trying to start a private prosecution against the Home Secretary. He's appeared in court and the judge has advised him to file a complaint with the Met Police. If they are not willing to investigate the accusation (hmm, isn't the Met under the control of the Home Secretary?), he can come back to court. I suppose there is very little chance that anything will come of it, but it would be wonderful if it did.

The Inland Revenue are going in this week to investigate whether MPs have any outstanding tax liabilities on the benefits they have received. That'll teach the bastards. Give them a taste of their own medicine. An expense is generally tax deductible you see, but there seems to be a suggestion that a considerable number of MPs have claimed for tax advice on expenses. And accounting services are not tax deductible, unless they are an office expense. I don't think anyone is really very clear on what constitutes an office expense as opposed to a personal expense however. I find this complex tax situation pleasingly ironic. Anyone who has run their own business will tell you this kind of complication comes up all the time in the real world. One is faced with a set of tax rules so baffling that it's almost impossible to ascertain whether something is tax deductible or not. In the end, the effort involved in finding out, or paying someone to do it for you, and then the potential cost of having to defend yourself in the event that it is questioned, is so great that you just pay the damn tax on it anyway.

We could take this taste-of-their-own-medicine thing a step further I reckon. I think we should make all politicians sell their second homes and make them get a HIP pack. They would have to organise it for themselves of course. They wouldn't be allowed to pay anyone to do it for them. And we should definitely have all of them arrested and then their DNA should be left on file forever, even if they were not not convicted of anything.