Editorial

Rarely has the House of Commons, the mother of Parliaments, caused so much outrage and anger in Britain as it has during the past few days over the series of revelations by The Daily Telegraph about the extent to which a number of MPs, Labour and Conservative, shamelessly and scandalously tapped parliamentary allowances and expenses for purely personal use unconnected with parliamentary duties. There have been instances over the years when trust in politicians nose-dived following reports of wrongdoing but the latest disclosures reveal what the newspaper has aptly described as a culture of greed and venality that is genuinely shocking.

Even though, unsurprisingly, the story did not climb to upper regions of general news discussion in Malta, with many preferring to concentrate their attention on Malta's performance at the Eurovision song festival, the implications of the disclosures are surely serious enough to warrant more than a passing interest as they expose flaws that can very well happen elsewhere. Hopefully, the scandal has put on high alert offices within other Parliaments in the democratic world, including the European Parliament, charged with policing the expenses system to ensure it is not abused as flagrantly as it has by MPs in Britain.

The surprise is that, despite the efforts made to block requests for details of expenses to be released, it took so long for such abuses to be exposed. But then the world is full of surprises. Who would have thought, for instance, that some of the prime bankers of the world would bring so much havoc to the financial system, triggering in the process an economic downturn that has pushed so many thousands of people out of work? In the wake of the revelations, the Speaker of the House of Commons will resign on June 21, two MPs have been suspended, a junior minister is stepping down and a number of those who flagrantly abused the system have undertaken to pay back the money they wrongly claimed.

The list of abuses disclosed so far is endless. One has claimed more than £66,000 for his family home, including hundreds of pounds on refurbishing his swimming pool. Another put in a claim for work on his helipad and received thousands of pounds for gardening bills. Another sent to Parliament receipts for hundreds of sacks of horse manure and yet another billed the taxpayer £115, plus VAT, for workmen to replace 25 bulbs at his second home in west London.

All this brings into play the integrity of all members of Parliament. Very often, whenever abuses are brought to light, attention is drawn by some MPs to the sacrifices they make in the course of representing their constituents. But this is usually too feeble an excuse to warrant any consideration; sacrifices do not justify wrongdoing. The Daily Telegraph was clear and to the point on this when it said: "Politicians are not doing us an honour by sitting on the green benches; we are doing them an honour by investing in them the power to make decisions about our daily lives as our elected representatives".

Even more to the point is the newspaper's call for the sense of vocation to be recovered: "What has been all but lost is the sense of true vocation - a calling to politics heard by clever, successful and scrupulous citizens for whom the whole subject of expenses is marginal." Politicians all over the world are prompt to plead a strong sense of vocation but voters do not always see evidence of this in their behaviour.