Never trust a man who says "trust me"

The story of MPs expenses continues. One issue in particular continues to shock me - the response of MPs to the revelations. Almost to a man (or woman) they seem to be of the opinion that it was the system which was at fault. 

I have just been listening to the Gordon Brown on the Today programme talking about constitutional reform and the need for more transparency and stricter rules so that voters can be assured that their MPs are behaving properly. 

NO!

Surely what we need are MPs who have ethics and who we can trust to behave properly. His principle appears to be "if there is no rule against it, then we can do it". This is a bad way of thinking from anyone - but from an MP, and from the PM in particular, this is dreadful. 

The point was made to the PM that the current batch of MPs were unfit to decide on any form of constitutional reform. Sadly he denies it and said that he was in the best position to reform the system given that he had tried to reform the expenses system last year. Yes he did - but, as PM, he is responsible for this system (which he admits needs "cleaning up"). Members of his cabinet have behaved very badly - including voting to keep expenses information secret. 

I have never written to my MP before, but will now do so. I'm lucky in that Mark Field appears to have behaved reasonably well and has campaigned for a better system - long before the Telegraph started to strut its stuff. I urge everyone to write to their MP to demand the immediate removal of MPs who have been screwing the system. Don't let them wait until the next election so that they can claim even more money. Complain loudly and complain now.