I am a resident of Malta but originally from the UK. I often wonder if the daily political sword fighting is for real or from a children’s story book.

The people’s choice of members for Parliament has been made for the next five years and already the plenary sessions are turning into farce. I offer the case of the Prime Minister’s official car as an instance.

MPs are constantly at the trough for taxpayers’ money to reimburse their ‘out of pocket expenses’ and the list of allowable claims is vast.

It is the level of these expenses that needs to be addressed and some of them should be removed altogether. Ordinary workers do not receive allowances for meals and drinks and have to fork out the money themselves, so why not politicians?

With the pre-election promises of openness and clarity in mind, the Prime Minister should set up an independent review and scrutinise all MPs’ allowances.

The level of self-gratification has become obscene, with some parliamentarians getting more in allowances and expenses than in salary. This has got to be reduced. Being an MP is a privilege and, for those in a position of trust, to aggrandise their own salary and allowances without restriction is immoral in the extreme. Nowhere else in employment is the employee allowed to award his/herself an unchallenged pay rise and politicians should not be allowed to do that either.

With the new Government, the people expect a better deal for their tax money.