MPs' Expenses

The past couple of weeks have proved (thanks to information gathered by the Telegraph) that Members of Parliament have been overclaiming on their expenses. Some rather amusing examples include the cleaning of a moat, porn (!), dog food and malteasers. Clearly, the system is broken - MPs obviously require having two homes (it is not practical to be the representative for Aberdeen whilst being an active Member of Parliament in Westminster), and also require expenses incurred whilst living at this second home, travelling to it, etc etc - but this shouldn't go as far as claming for a moat. However, the night before last I watched Question Time, and it was the first time ever that I've watched it when there has only been one question discussed for the entire one hour period. Yep, it was MPs' expenses. There was much heckling from the crowd; various diatribe from the audience included, "But nurses/teachers don't get a second home!" (are you retarded, they work within an hour of where they live), "I think they should just get paid minimum wage with no expenses like lots of people in Britain, so they understand what it's like" (yep, that would get the best quality people for the job no doubt), "MPs who have done this should go to jail, like how benefits cheats do".
This last point is the only one which needs addressing. The difference between MPs claiming over-exaggerated expenses and people claiming JSA when they are employed is that MPs never broke the law. The system was set up so that they put forward a claim, and that it was then approved in some form or other. Some claims were rejected - various claims for child's toys and furniture. But the claims that were authorised were authorised not because the MPs managed to 'get around the system', it was because the system was actually broken. There will be no prosecutions, and nor should there be.

I'm not defending the MPs. Whilst they acted in the letter of the law, they clearly did not act within the spirit of it. But it is no worse than what many other top dogs do in their jobs with expenses and taking advantage of perks. The system needs changing, but MPs don't need sacking.

Above all, much like with the 'Fred the Shred' incident, we do not need to spend more time on this. The time we spend debating this, the time that it takes up on the news, the time spent discussing it in Parliament could be used much better for bigger issues - for the economic crisis, for instance. Whilst we hold the government to account for their expenses, we fail to hold them to account for their inefficiences and misjudgements. The fact is, that all the expenses might end up with a few million quid being wasted.
We waste over £100bn each year on the NHS.

This is a drop in the ocean. Let's discuss real issues