Lobbydog...

Monday 27 April 2009

I pity Sir Chris

The PM's badly-conceived intervention in the expenses situation is becoming like one of those home video TV shows.

First scene – man shows off on bike, he cycles into river. Second scene – man chucks boomerang, it flies back and hits crotch. Third scene – man tries funky jig at wedding, trousers fall down to reveal comical Y-fronts.

The pattern is they all brought it upon themselves, and so it is with Gordon.

He could have stuck to his line about waiting for Sir Christopher Kelly's review or he could have properly tackled the problem himself.

Instead he broadcasted that bizarre video – at best a cack-handed attempt to address the problem, at worst an attempt to use the issue to capitalise politically.

His planned daily allowance, with all its flaws, couldn’t be seen as a serious attempt to address the public’s fears that expenses were being abused.

Not even Labour MPs liked the idea and now, embarrassingly, it seems it’ll be dropped when the Commons votes on Thursday – behold the Y-fronts.

Ironically the PM now wants Sir Christopher to come up with a replacement for the second home allowance urgently – in other words he’s telling the poor chap to pre-empt his own review.

5 comments:

Bent Society said...

How strange - Gordo flees the UK to Muslim Afganistan just as swine flu hits his native land. What a crackling conspiracy.

Anonymous said...

No doubt a general election will be postponed as we battle with 'pig flu' and martial law will be declared.

His video will go down as the 'back to basics' of the NuLabour years!

Oldrightie said...

Dead man not walking.

Lobbydog said...

@Bent society

good aliteration.

Farzaneh Haghayeghi said...

Intra proposals re the MP’s expenses made by the PM are evidently not adequate enough to make the right impact at the moment, in the light of all other going ones. I wonder if this is a new scenario or was it always the case, that the MPs, should we say....., misused the tax payer’s money? If I remember correctly in the 70s also this issue of MP’s expenses was addressed and it was a public knowledge then that MPs earned a high salary and were claiming massive unnecessary fringe benefits. So I like to say, what is new now...? Although the public will be pleased to know if something would be done about it. That is if the MPs allow it.

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