We are the answer to the question
The politicians have been grappling with the question of how to recover their reputations after the expense scandal. And they're starting to come up with their own answers.
The government decided that more bureaucrats were the solution - the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has been created to keep the MPs in line. The great and the good have been lined up to show that the establishment can regulate itself, and we needn't get involved. But today we've discovered the cost - Tribune reports that along with a mere £4m set up cost, the body will need a cool £100m a year to run. After all, the board will need their £400 a day expenses, while the chairman and chief executive need six-figure salaries to turn up to work in the morning. That's right - the solution to politicians pilfering taxpayers cash is to hand it over the bureaucrats instead.
The Tories, meanwhile, have been showing off their own solution, selecting their candidates by "primaries" - or at least two of them. But they have copied the very problem that got us in the mess in the first place - using the discredited first past the post system. So today's winner to replace Sir Peter Viggers - he who needed the mortgage on his duck house - was elected by less only 38% of those who voted...and only 17% of the electorate even bothered to do that. And the whole thing cost so much that the Tories have only even done that twice.
The sad thing is that we, the public, would happily hold MPs to account - and all for no added cost at all. Just give us our vote, with a fairer system that allows us to kick the guilty out.
That's why the most important thing the politicians can do is to let us solve the problem that they started - and keep our referendum. We are the answer to the question - and you can be part of the solution, by signing up here:
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