Chris Mullin: Contrary to opinion, we're not all at it
We despised representatives of the people have put up with many falsehoods
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Independent Minds
Forgive me, but even at this dark hour, I cannot resist a wry smile at the sight of The Daily Telegraph posing as a champion of free speech and democracy. Please do not misunderstand – though I am sure somebody will – I do not seek to minimise the seriousness of what has occurred regarding MPs' allowances. I am – and have been from the outset – unequivocally in favour of transparency, however painful. As one of my colleagues remarked the other day, "we had it coming".
In 22 years in Parliament I have opposed all pay increases for MPs that are out of line with the rest of the public sector. In 2001, along with about 60 colleagues, I opposed the 42 per cent increase in the additional costs allowance which is the source of so many of our present troubles. I do not seek to pretend to be holier than others. The truth is that just about all of us are vulnerable in the current climate.
However, the sight of the Telegraph's political correspondent, Benedict Brogan, on Question Time last week, pompously refusing to disclose his sources when no one was asking him to do so was almost too much to bear. What, he was asked, had his paper had paid the person who stole the now famous expenses disc. A minor matter maybe, given the wider issues at stake, but not an unreasonable question in this age of transparency.
The Daily Telegraph has never been above practising a little fraud on its readers. When I first visited Vietnam, in 1973, I was amazed to discover that the paper's Saigon correspondent, whose reports appeared almost daily under the byline John Draw, was in fact Nguyen Ngoc Phac, an officer working for General Cao Van Vien, chief of staff of the Southern army.
So blatant was the arrangement that Phac used to appear in uniform at the Reuters office to tap out his reports. It wasn't that his dispatches resembled the official line. They were the official line.
When I got home I raised the matter with the then Telegraph editor, the late Bill Deedes, but I couldn't get a straight answer out of him.
In 1976, after the fall of the fascist regime in Portugal, someone walked into the Ministry of Information in Lisbon and emerged with a file on a journalist who reported for the Telegraph from Portugal's African colonies, where fierce wars were raging. The file – a copy of which I still retain – showed he was in the pay of the Portuguese secret police.
True, under the editorship of Max Hastings and Charles Moore, the Telegraph enjoyed a period of respectability, but lately – having fallen into the hands of the Barclay Brothers – it has become little more than a broadsheet version of the Daily Mail. Indeed, many of the new masters, Mr Brogan included, were recruited from the Mail.
Under their tutelage, much of the Telegraph's political and economic reporting has become, frankly, doo-lally. My personal favourite among the many ludicrous stories that in recent years have adorned what passes for the Telegraph news pages was headed "Brown raised taxes to the highest level in 20 years". Pinch yourself and then ask "Who was prime minister 20 years ago?". Why, none other than the Telegraph's beloved Margaret Thatcher. And for how long had she been prime minister? Eight years. Good God, if all a Labour government managed in its first 10 years was to raise taxation to the level that it was under Mrs Thatcher at the height of her ascendancy, Middle England can surely sleep easy in their beds.
Among the many falsehoods that we poor, inadequate, despised representatives of the people have had to put up with over the years is the oft-repeated suggestion that when Parliament is not sitting we are all sunning ourselves in the south of France. (I have lost count of the number of times, on a sunny summer's evening, even coming down the steps of my office, I have been slapped on the back by a passing constituent remarking, "All right for you with your three months' holidays".)
More serious is the suggestion that we are all somehow pocketing the money we are given to employ staff and run an office. This is an old favourite with our most loathsome tabloids, but lately it has migrated. This, for example, was an ignoramus called Ian Cowie in the Money section of the Telegraph on 4 April: "Now that the average MP claims £135,600 a year for expenses – yes that's right, more than five times national average earnings – this means they avoid paying £54,000 a year tax which HMRC would demand from anyone else lucky enough to receive such payments."
Mr Cowie expounded on this thesis over the best part of two pages and returned to the subject last week. In what other profession would staff salaries, office rent, utility bills, the rent of photocopiers and so on be counted as income? In 22 years, not a penny of that money has ever touched my bank account.
Perhaps the most outrageous recent example of the growing culture of impunity when it comes to discussing alleged corruption by the political classes was the front page of the Daily Mirror on 31 March under a banner headline "THEY ARE ALL AT IT". The story, by one Bob Roberts, began "Greedy MPs pocket an average £144,176 in expenses on top of their bumper salaries, shock figures revealed yesterday..."
Actually, we are not all at it. The only place I have ever worked where they were "all at it" was Mirror Group Newspapers in the 1970s. There, at the end of the first week, my expenses were rejected by the man who was supposed to vouch for their accuracy on the grounds they were so low they would embarrass everyone else in the office.
I was then treated to a short course in how to construct a fraudulent expense account which, when no one was looking, I threw away.
Chris Mullin is MP for Sunderland South. His diaries, 'A View from the Foothills', have just been published by Profile Books at £20
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Comments
He is right of course right, at least I hope so, and for that reason a knee-jerk election right now , would be a bad mistake all round, especially for those MPs who are blameless
The main problem for me is the creation of a system that allowed MPs to help themselves.
As I understand it that requires a certain amount of cooperation.
If some were truely agast at all this corruption (for that is what it is) then they should have stepped down and blown whistles.
I would say that what we have seen is a classic example of "group mania", my own phrase. This is when a group of people, cut off from the real world, create their own system of morals, and live by them...
So what has happened in the meantime. the former is gone and now we have a politician who shoots the messenger and decries the telegraph for not singing from his song sheet. l would like you to avail rt hon Mr mullins of my e amail address in the hope he will reply.
It is always sad to see a investigative journalist and politican lose direction and unable to look back to his more idealistic days perhaps his book should be retitled Afoggy view from the foohills
http://news.independentminds.livejourna
The more perceptive Members of Parliament are already posting the details on their websites so they public can see and judge for themselves.
Whatever his personal situation, Chris Mullin cannot have any idea of the extent of the abuse of the system until all the details are revealed so he will have to wait until then before discussing public opinion.
I know some members of both houses and fully appreciate those who work extremely hard for the country as a whole. Having said that, there needs to be greater transparency and honesty.
In the absence of a Cromwell vote BNP if you can, otherwise abstain from the pseudo-democratic circus.
http://news.independentminds.livejourna
"We had it coming". NO, you speak at last after the bird has broken the cage.
Please let us think of how the laws of Gays and Lesbians came in the world. Who sectioned these? The parliament. Does the parliament have the Gays and Lesbian? Yes. Then is this a political revolution? Now read the thefts. One example. Who does this? Read on. Why. The churches start on the wrong foot and condemn with the other foot. We tell the thief to steal and tell the police who is coming where to steal?
Senior Lib Dem mired in £40,000 second home claim steps down
If you call this, a theft and you want to hide this to call a new parliament and put it under the mattress calling this a genuine political revolution.
Think like this. If you do not make mistake how will you find out the depth of the theft and that can only be done by repetitions. Given a second chance, we will become batter. We have had two big wars and do not want a third. Why? We learnt from the two big that UK is not strong as it thought.
Tell me the difference between what Tony Blaire had in mind about the Iraq wars and the Robin Cook from Scotland objected. I will then talk of England and Scotland; I love the oaths they call the Hippocratic Oath. The facts. .The Bank of England faces a tricky call in deciding how to tighten monetary policy as the economy recovers, and would not rush into hefty gilt sales, Deputy Governor Charles Bean said on Thursday.
Even if the low-point in economic activity was not far off, the strength of any economic recovery was uncertain and likely to be relatively low, Bean said in a speech to manufacturers in Sheffield.
I agree to lots of what they say but I understand little I agree all and disagree to all.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
Tightening monetary policy is not on the Bank's current agenda, as only two weeks ago its Monetary Policy Committee unanimously approved a further 50 billion pounds in asset purchases to boost the economy.
Even with government agencies that include the Secret Service and the Tax Division of the Justice Department working with the Internal Revenue Service to identify offenders, there is no shortage in the number of tax preparers accused of engaging in fraud.
Let us look at the facts. More people in China and India means more service men required. However when you look at the our problems, it is more thefts in these times then ever before more we need the police, auditors and the prudence and the regulation forced on the CEOs needed. It is just the case like more bananas more refrigerators you need to store them, for rainy days.
Hippocratic Oath means you say something, think of doing something else and mean something different however, you end up doing something different.
One day, you will be old. Read this one and cry. The gray hair grow, the eyes have cataract, the ears waxed, nose blocked, tables hundreds on the table for sleep and to wake you up, plastic knee and legs plastered. Then you too will say, ?Those years of 1900 were best? You are not in politics but the disease will catch on you as they have on my grand dad. We buried him last year. He regrets the not joining politics. The grass is always greener on the outside, no.
Here I just picked another one for your heath. There is a price tag but then your health is all I care. The Gap reports a big drop in profits while Campbell soup comes up a little light on revenue. Go for Knorr KNORR is the largest brand of the Unilever company. Find out more about Unilever
here. Copyright © 2004 Unilever. All rights reserved. ...
www.knorr.com/
The evils or the devil of the brand name is self-paying in the end and later the closing of the business. The brand name sell will fail as China and India copy, pirate and make cheaper things, soups and DVDs that can hold 5000 films.
I agree to lots of what they say but I understand little I agree all and disagree to all.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
I think the clubs where you go peruse the best of the outgoing employees and how the mix with the clients. All the clubs have these Accountants and auditors and this is the best way to put trust into them I was in one office when I learnt tennis by the audit manager of another CPS. Then I was offered twice the salary and allowances for my travel. How was this done? Club and tennis. Crafty. No. Social. I became tax manager.
Septimus Grunge
Aren't we lucky that the silver lining of MPs pockets may not be all theft and fraud.
Then, thanks very much, we'll decide what proportion are guilty.
Correct me if I am wrong but didn't Stalin and Hitler have these type of show trials.
As for the MPS, and their lack of probity- I'd like to see them dealt with, where the law has been broken, by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
There should also be a general election.
Bankers, CEO's who have lost billions and all those of the populous who has fraudently filled in their tax returns and expense sheets should also have the full force of the law brought upon them.
If we insist on purity, we should have consistency for all. Theft is theft is it not ?
Of course none of this applies to anyone here on these page, God forbid. :-)
Anyway what about Robespierre and his reign of terror, how many good people did he and his crowd send to the guillotine ?
Not about themselves, humble_sparrow, and never to uncover the truth.
We simply demand to see through the murky depths of this stagnant pool and bring some clear daylight to it. What comes of what we find, that's up to the electorate to decide (which is a new one, after decades... perhaps we'd forgotten we could? Stay tuned, not there yet.)
The yardstick of guilt is by the standards we ourselves are judged by, set up by the same people who felt it best that they make the laws while - God knows how many of them - salted away our money for things that had nothing to do with their duties, without accepting accountability, and even trying to stop us from seeing it happening. Even now there are complaints at the cruelty of our demands. That does not make sense, pure and simple.
I actually wish that we will see enough diamonds in the mud to gain a sense that parliament is not completely broken, but that can only be - not through "show trials" or "kangaroo courts" (which are the antithesis of truth-seeking) - but by the transparent clarity of some good old honest truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Which is taking place, and we are not going to let up the pressure.
Sad that this has to be painful, but like with a boil that needs lancing, or an infidelity uncovered, wriggling will only make things worse.
My own fear is this is layer *one* of a rotten onion, which is why perhaps the "witch-hunt" articles are being written, in hopes of avoiding further digging for murky goings-on. Imagine an unfaithful spouse saying to you that there was only the one "regrettable" affair, and please stop being so cruel, when actually they are hoping that you won't interrogate further and uncover more... Once trust is gone, truth is the only path back.
The issue about the Barclay Brothers may or may not be founded: let's deal with that as we go, but the expenses are not party-political they are fundamentally about democracy and true representation of the electorate. We have already paid for this!
Sorry to be tough about this, but I hope you can see what I am trying to say.
What they care about is being robbed blind by MP's. Those who stole directly and those who turned a blind eye to what was going on.
As for your point about taxation under Thatcher, your figures smell dodgy. Are you talking about direct taxation, indirect taxation and the inflation tax?
It maybe that direct taxation is similar. Indirect taxation has about doubled during Labours time in office. In addition the inflation tax has rocketed. Each time the BoE prints more money under its Quantitative Easing programme, that dilutes the purchasing power of all existing notes. This transfers the value of savers money to the government. I haven't seen the latest figures but is probably about 25% a year.
It's about time MP's started fighting back and standing up for themselves instead of cowering in a corner and let themselves be beaten up by a belligerent press full of it's own double standards and unaccountability.
What utter tosh. It's about time they stopped spending our money, and we don't elect and pay the wages of the press. And it is not just the belligerent press that is on the back of these shame-free jackals, just read the postings; and they don't all work for the press.
When you get stories about moats, duck islands, bath plugs, chimney sweeps, tampons, toilet seats x3 ,chandeliers, nine thousand pound home cinemas, silk cushions, electric massage chairs, dog food, 5p carrier bags, china tea sets x2,claims for mortages that have been payed up, manure, tudor beams, blue movies, what do you expect? Think about it whilst in your tree.
Nor do I, READ the second posting in this page, then comment!!!
I believe I have submitted to The Times the names of three MPs (my own, my parents' and my sisters'), all three of whom we all believe to be honest, fiscally prudent and not abusing the expenses system. For the record they are the Hon. Members for Leeds Central, Hillingdon and whatever the district covering The Finchley Road in NW London is called. Two are Labour and one Conservative (albeit one who had the Whip withdrawn and voted against the Iraq war).
I believe that most people believe in innocent until proven guilty, however their strong emotions are coming out along the lines of 'all politicians are a bunch of w***ers!' I think it will pass.
The way to fight back is for all the innocent MPs to do just as you have done and seek publicity for your good conduct. It might be wise to find a means to print 'The Daily Mail Editor said: I couldn't give a stuff if you've behaved well, that won't sell newspapers!' in as large a circulation organ as possible (sadly, that may be the New Statesman!)
If there is any way that a cross-party concensus can bring information to bear which allows 100 Labour MPs, 100 Tories and 30 LibDems to jointly say: we're clean and here's the evidence, that would be greatly appreciated.
Otherwise we will have the neurotic mother syndrome whose slightly naive son was jilted by a reprehensible little tart proclaiming that 'all girls nowadays are evil and he must stay at home with mummy'.
I'm sure in Sunderland you have a suitable expression for the acronym WALOFB, eh?
The expenses system enables MPs of all backgrounds to maintain two places of residence. That's essential for them to return to their constituencies, meet their electorate, and hold surgeries to *listen* to them and give advice. At present, prospective candidates often campaign in hardship, but with the assurance that if they are voted in they won't need a financial sponsor.
Does the Daily Telegraph want the Mother of Parliaments to be packed full of yes-people of mysterious means and their hangers-on? Take a look at Sark, and decide for yourself.
Self-regulation may not look pretty, but the distribution of MPs expenses by someone with links to the secretive parts of the security services isn't pretty, full stop. Crooks with cash can now judge which MPs are financially vulnerable - and I dare say, so can party whips.
I'm all praise for Chris Mullin - and if you read this, I hope you'll give your successor your advice. I do like rhysjaggar's idea.
Funny it seems true it is. Oh Jesus (That is the only time we remember ALLAH AND God, the Holy Spirit, otherwise we think of money, money, money oh my baby. Again, the paper has the comment like this. As an Irishman I have always had a great respect for Chris Mullin and the stand he took on the injustices of the Guildford four and Birmingham six.( spellings please ).Is this the cricket or the hockey for six.. I think this piece confirms that Mr Mullin is not for the speaker?s chair. He cannot be the speaker was fired and the Independent for two, I repeat three days had the best of the cartoons. The Daily Telegraph is revealing details of expense claims on a regular basis rather than simultaneously. Given that there are more than six hundred MPs, it will take some time before all the information is revealed. An erection of the pseudo-democratic circus, (letters too late corrected as election. That is bad enough). Correct me if I am wrong but didn't Stalin and Hitler have these types of show trials. (Hitler and Stalin were in Germany. We are in UK. Let us leave them out, out, out.) Nobody cares about the Telegraph Chris (The Daily Telegraph bribe for the story so they get the scoop if any can do, you get the papers sell like hotcakes and not like papers). He is right of course, right, at least I hope so, and for that reason a knee-jerk election right now, would be a bad mistake all round, especially for those MPs who are blameless. Are they????
Now let us talk of what we have in this paper I did not read in the others, the one called itself the FIRST IN THE WEB
Send more troops as we have no jobs here in UK.
Mr Brown has called Mr Blaire to explain how to send more troops as he realised the Obama will ask him in turn. Will NASA say sorry here? Did Brown say sorry promptly?
Things go missing. It's to be expected. Even at the Pentagon. Last October, the Pentagon's inspector general reported that the military's accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. In all, nearly $8 billion in weapons were AWOL.
At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world, there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion. -Edwin Hubbel Chapin, minister and orator (1814-1880)
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla