Gravy train crashes for UK lawmakers
By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer
36 mins ago
LONDON – Goodbye, gravy train. It was great while it lasted — but then the public got wise.
British lawmakers are dealing with a growing backlash over questionable expenses kept secret until last week, when a British newspaper began publishing stories based on millions of leaked receipts. The litany of abuses has dominated the front pages and airwaves since then, stoking a palpable public sense of betrayal.
Few imagined that every lawmaker was scrupulously honest and frugal with the public purse, but the flagrant greed of many has provoked public demands for wholesale change. Some in Parliament are calling it the "Quiet Revolution" — a surge of anger forcing lawmakers to consider relinquishing power they've had for centuries. Interim rules will now greatly limit flagrant abuses of power, and more far-reaching changes are expected as Parliament considers giving up some of its sovereignty to mollify the public.
Bill Jones, a professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University, said Britain is in the throes of a quiet but forceful "peasants' revolt" without demonstrations in the street but with rising frustration expressed on blogs, radio talk shows and opinion polls. He said citizen fury about high-living politicians is made much worse by the deep recession that has cost so many their jobs and their houses.
"It's a very deeply entrenched feeling of revulsion of what the political class has been up too," Jones said. "They have been shamed. There will be more heads to roll."
Not only are the new, interim rules already in place — no more claiming reimbursement for mortgage interest payments that were never actually made, for example — but Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for outside regulators to administer the new system, which would end centuries of parliamentary sovereignty over its own affairs.
The prime minister's startling message: Lawmakers can't be trusted to handle taxpayers' money.
Newly announced interim rules will cap the amount lawmakers can claim for mortgage expenses on their second homes and also limit the items that can be claimed for reimbursement. Strategies used to avoid capital gains taxes will also be barred.
These reforms are not nearly enough to quell public anger, said talk radio host Jon Gaunt, whose SunTalk show has been overwhelmed by callers furious about the abuses.
"I've never heard them more angry in my 16 years on radio," he said. "It's a story that won't go away. Everybody feels that these are the people who tell them to pay their taxes and their license fees, meanwhile they've got their hands in the till. It affects everybody, and this confirms everyone's suspicions about politicians."
Veterans of Britain's bare-knuckled political wars say they cannot recall a time when public trust had sunk so low.
"The public feels contempt, disbelief with the sheer hypocrisy of so many politicians," said Bernard Ingham, who was press secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. "I think it is quite dangerous for our democracy. People have very little faith in their Parliament to do anything honestly. I don't think we've had anything quite like it."
Ingham admitted that abuses went on during Thatcher's time in office_ and that former Prime Minister John Major's final years were marked by embarrassing sex scandals, but he said Britain had never before seen such a widespread loss of confidence in lawmakers.
"They have failed to distinguish between what might have been allowed under a very lax system and what was morally right," he said, adding that all three major parties have been hurt by the revelations.
An unrelated corruption scandal led to the suspension Wednesday of two members of the House of Lords accused of amending legislation in exchange for cash. Lord Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn both denied the charges. They will miss the rest of the parliamentary session, expected to end in about six months.
The expense account abuses — including, famously, the use of public money to clean a moat at a lawmaker's country estate — came to light because of a freedom of information request by Heather Brooke, a crusading American journalist shocked by the secrecy surrounding parliament's financial affairs.
"I think there's a culture of deference here, where the public believe that people who are in power — the great and the good — still know what's best for everyone," Brooke said in an interview. "I come from an American tradition, that you should always be skeptical of government and have a right to know what's been done with your money."
It took her five years of court battles to force the release of the information. It was set to be made public in July, but the information was leaked last week to the Daily Telegraph, which has published dozens of stories based on the data.
The burgeoning scandal has already cost House Speaker Michael Martin his job, and several lawmakers have said they will not seek re-election, but this does not seem to have satisfied the public's desire for change.
Andrew Russell, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Manchester, said the changes are a necessary first step of restoring public trust, but it remains to be seen whether they will be enough.
"All it does is give the baying crowd a thirst for more," he said.
He also discounted rumors that Brown might call a surprise snap election to try to vindicate himself.
"It would just be suicide," he said.
By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer
36 mins ago
LONDON – Goodbye, gravy train. It was great while it lasted — but then the public got wise.
British lawmakers are dealing with a growing backlash over questionable expenses kept secret until last week, when a British newspaper began publishing stories based on millions of leaked receipts. The litany of abuses has dominated the front pages and airwaves since then, stoking a palpable public sense of betrayal.
Few imagined that every lawmaker was scrupulously honest and frugal with the public purse, but the flagrant greed of many has provoked public demands for wholesale change. Some in Parliament are calling it the "Quiet Revolution" — a surge of anger forcing lawmakers to consider relinquishing power they've had for centuries. Interim rules will now greatly limit flagrant abuses of power, and more far-reaching changes are expected as Parliament considers giving up some of its sovereignty to mollify the public.
Bill Jones, a professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University, said Britain is in the throes of a quiet but forceful "peasants' revolt" without demonstrations in the street but with rising frustration expressed on blogs, radio talk shows and opinion polls. He said citizen fury about high-living politicians is made much worse by the deep recession that has cost so many their jobs and their houses.
"It's a very deeply entrenched feeling of revulsion of what the political class has been up too," Jones said. "They have been shamed. There will be more heads to roll."
Not only are the new, interim rules already in place — no more claiming reimbursement for mortgage interest payments that were never actually made, for example — but Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for outside regulators to administer the new system, which would end centuries of parliamentary sovereignty over its own affairs.
The prime minister's startling message: Lawmakers can't be trusted to handle taxpayers' money.
Newly announced interim rules will cap the amount lawmakers can claim for mortgage expenses on their second homes and also limit the items that can be claimed for reimbursement. Strategies used to avoid capital gains taxes will also be barred.
These reforms are not nearly enough to quell public anger, said talk radio host Jon Gaunt, whose SunTalk show has been overwhelmed by callers furious about the abuses.
"I've never heard them more angry in my 16 years on radio," he said. "It's a story that won't go away. Everybody feels that these are the people who tell them to pay their taxes and their license fees, meanwhile they've got their hands in the till. It affects everybody, and this confirms everyone's suspicions about politicians."
Veterans of Britain's bare-knuckled political wars say they cannot recall a time when public trust had sunk so low.
"The public feels contempt, disbelief with the sheer hypocrisy of so many politicians," said Bernard Ingham, who was press secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. "I think it is quite dangerous for our democracy. People have very little faith in their Parliament to do anything honestly. I don't think we've had anything quite like it."
Ingham admitted that abuses went on during Thatcher's time in office_ and that former Prime Minister John Major's final years were marked by embarrassing sex scandals, but he said Britain had never before seen such a widespread loss of confidence in lawmakers.
"They have failed to distinguish between what might have been allowed under a very lax system and what was morally right," he said, adding that all three major parties have been hurt by the revelations.
An unrelated corruption scandal led to the suspension Wednesday of two members of the House of Lords accused of amending legislation in exchange for cash. Lord Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn both denied the charges. They will miss the rest of the parliamentary session, expected to end in about six months.
The expense account abuses — including, famously, the use of public money to clean a moat at a lawmaker's country estate — came to light because of a freedom of information request by Heather Brooke, a crusading American journalist shocked by the secrecy surrounding parliament's financial affairs.
"I think there's a culture of deference here, where the public believe that people who are in power — the great and the good — still know what's best for everyone," Brooke said in an interview. "I come from an American tradition, that you should always be skeptical of government and have a right to know what's been done with your money."
It took her five years of court battles to force the release of the information. It was set to be made public in July, but the information was leaked last week to the Daily Telegraph, which has published dozens of stories based on the data.
The burgeoning scandal has already cost House Speaker Michael Martin his job, and several lawmakers have said they will not seek re-election, but this does not seem to have satisfied the public's desire for change.
Andrew Russell, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Manchester, said the changes are a necessary first step of restoring public trust, but it remains to be seen whether they will be enough.
"All it does is give the baying crowd a thirst for more," he said.
He also discounted rumors that Brown might call a surprise snap election to try to vindicate himself.
"It would just be suicide," he said.
