Anything to Declare?

The furore over MPs expenses and the incredible fact they don’t have to produce receipts for any claims under £250 and can claim £400 a month against ‘food’ expenditure (more than the highest state pension over a month) really underlines some of the archaic practices operating within our government. The argument they don’t want people to have a “peephole” into their lives, (the word(s) of Resources Boss Andrew Walker), doesn’t hold weight as what can they be doing as MPs working on ‘our’ behalf that couldn’t be made public?

No business in Britain would run a system where employees could claim expenses of up to £250 without any form of receipt, but for MPs to be able to do so, and get back, effectively, ‘our’ money is so outdated and open to corruption it defies belief.

The Scottish Government now has an online section where you can search for any expenditure in any available category claimed by minsters. If SMPs are doing their jobs and claiming legitimate expenses they incur, then what is the problem? If the Westminster MPs are so ‘honourable’ what have they got to fear?