There is this whole thing about fairness going on at the moment. Something to do with a spending review. George Osborne says that all his cuts are "fair" and reasonable.
However I bet some of you would be surprised that a politician's definition of fair and reasonable is a bit different to that of the dictionary.
In the case of Andew Mackay and Julie Mackay nee Kirkbride who used to be MPs until they got kicked out by their electors for their cheating and who have now been investigated, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon said "that rather than both claiming near to the maximum of the accommodation allowance on separate properties, it would have been "reasonable" for them to have each claimed two-thirds of the full allowance on a shared second home." I would have thought a more reasonable arrangement would be to have them claiming one half of the full allowance each on the shared second home, but then I'm not an MP.
MPs can twist the truth and wriggle out of anything thrown at them. It must be one of steps that prospective parlimentary candidates have to go through to get selected it's so natural for them to do it. Witness Julie Kirkbride's statement of "I am delighted that the parliamentary standards commissioner has cleared my name and found me not guilty of abusing my expenses." But only because she was only investigated about an increase in mortgage for an extension on her house for her brother and not the claiming of a 2nd home allowance for one property whilst her husband did the same on their other property. In fact the commissioner said that "to claim on both properties was “clearly the wrong thing to do.” " so Julie Kirkbride is guilty too. Fact.
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