Frank Cook claimed back a £5 donation made at a church service to commemorate the sacrifice of RAF pilots. The left wing MP for Stockton North signed the claim thus: “Battle of Britain church service, Sunday 17.09.06. £5 contribution to offertory on behalf of Frank Cook MP.”
From Guido Fawkes. The claim was rejected by the fees office. Mr Cook told the Telegraph "I don't remember the specific details of the Battle of Britain Day donation, but the claim was quite unjustified and I have to hold up my hands and say sorry."
Fair enough, it's only £5 and he's apologised. But why would anyone even think of claiming for this in the first place?
I'll say it again, forget all this tosh about 'reforming the system'. ITS NOT THE SYSTEM THAT'S THE PROBLEM ITS THE PEOPLE. The financial credit crunch last year, and the moral credit crunch this year, are both the result of people doing greedy and irresponsible things because they thought they could get away with it. Yes better (and independent) regulation will help keep people honest in the future, but if an MP can't be a good, honest and trustworthy steward of taxpayers money without having a 'system' to keep him/her that way, then we don't want them as an MP in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment