GLASGOW EAST

So the SNP won the seat much to my delight although I have to say watching TV and seeing their candidate John Mason arrive at the count he seemed a bit of a prat giving victory salutes before the result was announced — there was in fact a recount so he had quite a long wait before it was official. Margaret Curran only has one snout but had she won she would have been able to put it in two troughs as it seems she was unwilling to resign her seat at Holyrood.

WESTMINSTER GRAVY TRAIN

So yesterday our representatives at Westminster voted on salaries and expenses. Many (well most) voted against reforming the expenses system. Some MPs wanted wanted to introduce a degree of greater transparency in allowances claimed as well as a tighter auditing control. Those who voted to reject such plans include:— Jaqui Smith, Andy Burnham, Shaun Woodward, Paul Murphy, Caroline Flint. Some MPs obviously have the sense to realise that the mass of taxpayers is getting fed up with pushing the gravy train and that the reputation of Parliament in the eyes of the public demands some restraint. Others are totally without shame.

WESTMINSTER EXPENSES

Well our MPs have now come up with a new fix for their problems with housing expenses. As we know they have been very reluctant to open their expense claims to public view led by Michael Martin. The fix is simple — just look at the maximum that can be claimed annually and add it to the salary of MPs on a no questions asked basis and irrespective of whether it is needed. The amount seems to be around £23,000 pa tax-free which is roughly equivalent to £40,000 pre-tax. Discussions are still taking place so it has not been finalised and I gather HMRC have been involved in the discussions because of the tax implications. As far as I can make out the amount just replaces the housing allowance so there will still be other expenses eg for staffing and secretarial help. Now most of our legislation comes from Brussels perhaps we could reduce the burden on a long-suffering public by cutting the number of MPs drastically.

MEPs

Yesterday the Sunday press reported that the EU allowances of yet another Tory MEP are being queried. Den Dover may have channeled allowances of up to £750,000 into the family firm MP Holdings which he used as "paying agent" and "service provider". A report in the Sunday Times deals mostly with the purchase of two cars but I would be interested to see where the rest went.

GRAVY TRAIN SCOTLAND

So MSPs have decided they need larger allowances. Most people of course have to persuade their boss or their company for more money (whether basic salary or allowance). But MSPs just do it. Their budget for employing staff is to go up from £45,000 to £62,000. And because Scotland has a form of proportional representation they have decided that all MSPs will get the same whether a constituency MSP or a "list" MSP. The independent review thought that the former (who are elected, whilst the latter are just party jobsworths) should get more because they have a bigger workload — after all if a constituent has problems it is their constituency MSP they are likely to contact. But the MSPs have decided that all should be equal — no second-class coaches on this gravy train.

GRAVY TRAIN FOR MEPs

MEPs seem to make good use of their expense allowances and it seems that David Cameron is a little concerned about what might emerge. He wants the 28 Conservative MEPs to come clean but almost half of them are resisting (Daily Telegraph 9th June). Today the same paper reveals that a Labour MEP paid his boyfriend £8000 per month in 2002. He now pays £30,000 annually to the man personally but it is unclear what happens to the remainder of the allowance. Since 1999 he has claimed over £760,000 and it is believed that it was given to his boyfriend, now civil partner, to administrate. Scumbags.