Right and Wrong

So the right dishonourable Mr Hoon believes that it is perfectly right to live in a house provided for by the tax payer, rent out his "main residence" and then claim expenses for running another "home" in Derbyshire. This, surely, brings into question whether our Transport Secretary has any understanding about the meaning of right and wrong. To say that he was acting within the rules is as lame an excuse as "I was only carrying out orders". It would appear that Mr Hoon, Mrs Smith and McNulty have all financially benefited from claiming expenses for second homes. It would appear that they have all received more from the tax payer than it has cost them. Does Mr Hoon and his chums not think that this is basically wrong, even if it may be within the Parliamentary Rules. And if they think that it is wrong, as Mr McNulty now declares, just why has he been doing it?

No wonder we hear about loop holes in the laws that let tax dodgers, rapists and other criminals escape justice if those that we pay to enable the legislation can not even come up with a system of repaying themselves for the reasonable additional costs of doing their job.

If the Government has a number of empty grace and favour homes because Ministers would sooner sleep in their sisters spare bedroom, then perhaps they should be converted in to a number of smaller apartments to be allocated to MPs that need to reside in London during the week. Alternatively, if any MP does claim an allowance for a 2nd home then the costs of running both homes should be submitted and the taxpayer charged for only the lesser of the two. 

Perhaps, also, where the second home is shared by partner/spouse or other consenting adult, the costs of maintaining this home should be split equally between the two of them.