They really make you laugh do MPs, don't they?
Conservative Roger Gale has said that Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) should consider resigning. He said that the organization is not working and those responsible have got to be replaced.
The Liberal Democrat Conservative Bob Russell has called the organization the worst he has dealt with and described it as ‘not fit for purpose’ (an expression a bit close to home in the mouth of a Libdem, actually in the mouth of an MP).
Amazing! IPSA was put in place only a year ago, by MPs, and it’s not fit for purpose? Alread
y? Well I never.
But the funniest comment came from David Winnick, a member of the equally amusing Labour Party who said: ''The patience of MPs has reached such a state that inevitably there will be changes.'' Goodness, we simply can’t have the patience of MPs being stretched. Whatever next? We’ll be asking them to turn up for work and do what we pay them to do instead of writing books and going on tours, sitting on company boards, practising law, appearing on tv quiz and reality shows, etc.
Ian Kennedy made it absolutely clear he was going nowhere. With the kind of common sense that you rarely hear from people in public life he pointed out that some MPs were finding it difficult to adjust to independent regulation of their expenses claims (having been used to getting whatever they asked for regardless of what they were due).
He said that IPSA was doing the job it was set up to do and there was no way that he would consider fundamental changes to the system of
expenses claims that is now in place. He added that the idea of resigning had not occurred to him.
Nor should it.
IPSA may not be running as smoothly as everyone would want, but that’s the way things are when they are set up initially. Every one of us in this badly organized country has to put up with poorly administered, underfunded facilities, waiting in queues, being overlooked, having mistakes made in payments, lack of information, misinformation. Dealing with anyone or anyth
ing in “authority” is likely to cause heart attacks and nervous breakdowns.
MPs appear to think that they should be exempt from the hell that they have wished on the rest of us.
Well, does anyone think that they should be?
The prime minister seems to have a weird idea about what the word “independent” means. He promised his backbenchers that if the organization had not made fundamental changes by April something would be done. By whom, Dave? You? How independent would that be, seeing that you’re an MP yourself.
Given what Ian Kennedy has said, it looks like there will be a sh
owdown... and of course the prime minister will win in the short term because he is the prime minister. But in the long term it’s just another nail in these people’s coffins.
When we complain about something set up by parliament being unfit for purpose, nothing happens; when they complain that they can’t claim travel expenses for their children, Cameron changes the rules... Tut tut, bad move. Whatever happened to us all being in it together?
Ian Kennedy reminded us today that it is the public who pay these expenses. Cameron would do well to remember that he can’t hope to get away with using our money to bribe his backbenchers!
Conservative Roger Gale has said that Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) should consider resigning. He said that the organization is not working and those responsible have got to be replaced.
The Liberal Democrat Conservative Bob Russell has called the organization the worst he has dealt with and described it as ‘not fit for purpose’ (an expression a bit close to home in the mouth of a Libdem, actually in the mouth of an MP).
Amazing! IPSA was put in place only a year ago, by MPs, and it’s not fit for purpose? Alread
y? Well I never.But the funniest comment came from David Winnick, a member of the equally amusing Labour Party who said: ''The patience of MPs has reached such a state that inevitably there will be changes.'' Goodness, we simply can’t have the patience of MPs being stretched. Whatever next? We’ll be asking them to turn up for work and do what we pay them to do instead of writing books and going on tours, sitting on company boards, practising law, appearing on tv quiz and reality shows, etc.
Ian Kennedy made it absolutely clear he was going nowhere. With the kind of common sense that you rarely hear from people in public life he pointed out that some MPs were finding it difficult to adjust to independent regulation of their expenses claims (having been used to getting whatever they asked for regardless of what they were due).
He said that IPSA was doing the job it was set up to do and there was no way that he would consider fundamental changes to the system of
expenses claims that is now in place. He added that the idea of resigning had not occurred to him.Nor should it.
IPSA may not be running as smoothly as everyone would want, but that’s the way things are when they are set up initially. Every one of us in this badly organized country has to put up with poorly administered, underfunded facilities, waiting in queues, being overlooked, having mistakes made in payments, lack of information, misinformation. Dealing with anyone or anyth
ing in “authority” is likely to cause heart attacks and nervous breakdowns.MPs appear to think that they should be exempt from the hell that they have wished on the rest of us.
Well, does anyone think that they should be?
The prime minister seems to have a weird idea about what the word “independent” means. He promised his backbenchers that if the organization had not made fundamental changes by April something would be done. By whom, Dave? You? How independent would that be, seeing that you’re an MP yourself.
Given what Ian Kennedy has said, it looks like there will be a sh
owdown... and of course the prime minister will win in the short term because he is the prime minister. But in the long term it’s just another nail in these people’s coffins.When we complain about something set up by parliament being unfit for purpose, nothing happens; when they complain that they can’t claim travel expenses for their children, Cameron changes the rules... Tut tut, bad move. Whatever happened to us all being in it together?
Ian Kennedy reminded us today that it is the public who pay these expenses. Cameron would do well to remember that he can’t hope to get away with using our money to bribe his backbenchers!
