Modeling Journey

""Stealing," said one man pushing a baby in a pram. He is out of work and struggling to feed a growing family. Trade at Bailey's Cafe was brisk this lunchtime as people scurried in to escape the rain. Patricia Barber, one of the waitresses, summed up the mood of many. "Sack them all and start again," she said as she ferried out steaming plates of corned beef hash."

Those are the views of some of the constituents of a British MP about the expenses debacle which has enveloped Britain.

And the MP's view?

""This bloodfest has got to stop...otherwise we will have no democracy left," he said."

What lies behind the expenses mess in Britain? Hidden expenses, a lax system, and an enterprising newspaper which exposed the mess:

"Most MPs have to live in two places - in their constituencies and in London where they attend Parliament. They are allowed to claim expenses to cover the cost of running a second home. Details of what has been claimed on second home expenses have never been revealed before the Daily Telegraph got hold of a leaked copy of all the claims. Many MPs have been accused of extravagance, of over-claiming and avoiding tax on home sales."

And the reasoning of the committee of the House of Commons about the expenses of MPs? Laughable:

"The Commons authorities checked claims through basic steps like checking the identity of people who claimed, that claims were an "allowable item" and that receipts were provided if necessary. But ultimately the system of MPs' allowances was "self regulatory", as MPs were accountable to Parliament and their constituents at the ballot box, they argued."

However, the Commons authorities are partially correct, and judgment will be levied on MPs during coming elections. The initial views of voters can be gauged from opinion polls, and that message is dire: Labour will lose power next year.

Sir Peter (Duck Island) Viggers is an early victim:

"Sir Peter Viggers, whose gardening claims totalled £30,000, is to quit at "the direct request of David Cameron"."

One MP at least has a very realistic view of who is to blame:

"In an interview with the BBC, Ms Dorries, who was a nurse before she came into politics, said MPs were walking around "with terror in their eyes" and likened the atmosphere to that surrounding Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" of Communists during the 1950s. But speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Mr Pound dismissed the analogy as "facile" because "Senator McCarthy's victims were innocent". He acknowledged that the mood at Westminster was "very, very dark", adding: "It's like a slasher movie where every morning we come in and see who's still alive." But he said MPs had no-one to blame but themselves, and accused his colleagues of revelling in a sense of entitlement fostered by fees office staff who saw it as their job to maximise members' claims. "They were helping us over the cliff, but it's our fault for jumping," Mr Pound said."

Some cliff.

Some jump.
And it leads to a question for us: do we have a similar sense of entitlement on the part of our Canadian MPs? And a similar cliff?