Quotations
If there is one subject that has been constantly in the news in the UK over the last couple of months, it is the word "expenses", in relation to that thorny subject of MP's expenses.
As most people will know, and certainly anyone British, UK politics has been rocked by a series of scandals showing claims from MPs that are outrageous, and in many cases may be proven to actually be fraudulent once a police enquiry takes place. From claiming for penny phone calls, to flipping their homes to maximise expense revenue and more besides, many MPs have been busy milking the system.
If Shakespeare were writing now, perhaps instead of describing greatness he would be writing about MPs and their riches:
Some MPs are born rich
Others have richness thrust upon them
...For all the other MPs, there's the expense system
Having seen the public mood, most MPs reluctantly admitted that there was something wrong in the state of Westminster, but assured us all that they were 'honest mistakes'. Of course this set up a rather alarming lose-lose dichotomy:
Either all the MPs who had dodgy expenses are honest but incompetent, in which case how can we trust them with important parliamentary business, or they are dishonest, in which case how can we trust them with important parliamentary business? It's lose-lose for those MPs, but much worse, it's lose-lose for the country.
Time: 22 Jun 2009 19:00:00
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