MPs' expenses: now it's the Tories' turn...

[policywonk]

here

More to come - how long are the Telegraph going to string this one out, I wonder? Apparently they paid a six-figure sum for the leak so I guess they want to get their money's worth.

I think the problem with the data the politicians wanted released was that the stripping out of address details "for security purposes" also made it impossible to see whether MPs were involved in "flipping", which for me is the most scandalous part of all of this, most especially the fact they can avoid capital gains tax

You also wouldn't be able to tell if MPs were bending the rules to make vast fortunes out of property, buying, tarting up as second home, flipping to first home, selling with no capital gains, then starting again as you wouldn't be able to see which houses they had when and what their designation was.

I seem to have a vague recollection that the Freedom of Information Act was cited in order to get public disclosure of MPs expenses. The woman who, I believe, brought it via judicial review, was an American woman who was a journalist and was very passionate about public accountability. One of the defences was MPs having their personal details in the public domain such as addresses. I seem to remember that she faced such opposition in terms of making it a right to have this in the public domain. Wonder why Don't seem to remember the Telegraph rushing to her defence at the time?

In general terms, the factor that has been missing has been the public scrutiny. Sure, no rules have been broken, but isn't it incredible that MPs, with no change to the rules, are writing checks left, right and center to pay back the taxpayer. So, it's the cheeky little schoolboy (and let's face it, Westminster is an old boys network) trying it on, and getting hauled into the Principal's office for a telling off!

I think that MPs need to have a certain amount of discretion, and that extends to expenses. Either we trust these people, or we don't.

By the same token, now that they will know that every receipt will be under the microscope, I think that's a huge kick up the ass, and hopefully that's all that will be needed.

it would be possible to divulge that MPs were "flipping" without divulging full details of addresses - including those of people who weren't acting in that way. So leaking most of the information was a public benefit, leaking all of it wasn't. You only have to give the area not the detailed address for those were flipping.

One of the problems here is that the staff responsible for scrutinising expenses had their career prospects depend on pleasing MPs, not on being economical.

Public scrutiny isn't enough - in a constituency like mine the MP knows he will be re-elected no matter what he does. However if your leader combines it with a threat to throw you out of the party if you break the spirit of the rules then it might work.

Anyone know how I can read my MPs detailed expenses? He hasn't been named yet as one of the biggest pigs.

I found this quite interesting...