Letters: MPs’ claims legal, but not legitimate:

Letters: MPs’ claims legal, but not legitimate

By The Guardian newspaper: Editorials & reply | guardian.co.uk • February 9, 2009

I have no doubt that Jacqui Smith’s accommodation claims (Home secretary in expenses row, 9 February) will be found to accord with the letter of parliamentary regulations, as did those of the Cooper-Balls family last year. To mere mortals, however, one’s main home is the family home, and the family home is the place where the children live and grow and go to school. To designate other premises as such, coincidentally maximising expenses entitlement, may be legal but it is not legitimate - it is shameful.

So there we have it: principles - no; philosophy - no; social ambition - forget it. The letter of the law allows such claims, so let’s forget the spirit and intent behind them. Politics is a job like any other, after all, so family “duty” surely demands that one maximises returns for as long as it lasts - doesn’t it? This last sentiment may seem savage, but what other conclusion can reasonably be drawn from the actions and arguments of those who hold or aspire to public office?

In 1997 it was a pleasure to vote in a government which seemed to believe in something. But in recent years a new breed of career-centric cynics have arrived in ministries and the cabinet, seemingly ambitious for office for its own sake rather than to accomplish social change.
Mike McCarthy
Oxford

We are told the home secretary pays market rates to stay at her sister’s home in London. I didn’t realise there were market rates for putting up a relative. I’d like to know what these are so the next time my sister-in-law comes to stay I can make sure we’re not being short-changed by the bottle of wine she usually brings.
Dick Graham
London