Scandal! The London Telegraph is in full-throated cry against the expense-account extravagance of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his cabinet members and parliamentarians of all parties.
However, even the Telegraph has to admit that the problem doesn't just reside in the system of taxpayer funded "allowances" designed to cover the costs of Members' maintaining houses in London as well as in their constituencies. It is a burden for members of Parliament to maintain two homes--as it is, even more so, for Members of the U.S. Congress, covering, as they do a huge continent that seldom can be reached by less than a plane ride. If the Parliament itself decides to help cover such costs the press should not be surprised that odd-seeming expenses will show up--house cleaning services or potted plants. The unfortunate Jack Straw, Lord High Chancellor, must explain why he needed an allowance for "two toilet seats. What exactly caused such excess, the media demand to know; tell us more. Maybe they should send an inquiry to the Privy Council.
No, the real problem is that Members of Parliament make too little to live on in one of the costliest cities on Earth. The allowance fees are a sad way to get around that reality. Sixty three thousand pounds a year (about US$96,000) obviously cannot allow a two-household existence, especially if one of the houses is in London. An American Congressman makes far more ($174,000).
The cure is to raise the salaries and then cut out the allowance system for household expenses.
Of course, the deeper cure is to reduce the time Members spend in Parliament trying to micro-manage one of the largest, most complicated economies on the planet. The Parliament makes is own work, in other words, and, hence, creates the pressed conditions that make scandals--real and faux--nearly inevitable. The heavy burden of government programs in welfare-laden Britain is a major contributor to the high cost of living there. Parliament itself imposes all those programs.
Meanwhile, wouldn't the Lord High Chancellor prefer to pay the bill for toilet seats out of his own salary rather than submit a record to be scrutinized by the media?
