ABOVE THE LAW?
Wonder what you make of the efforts of the three Labour MPs charged yesterday with theft over fraudulent expense claims who now say they are above the law and will fight attempts to put them on trial.
Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine each face up to seven years in jail after Keir Starmer, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, announced that he was charging them under the Theft Act 1968. Lord Hanningfield, the Tory frontbencher and leader of Essex County Council, faces six charges over his expense claims. In a joint statement, the three MPs announced that they would fight the charges by claiming parliamentary privilege over their expense claims. It said: “We maintain that this is an issue that should be resolved by the parliamentary commissioner, who is there to enforce any breach of the rules.”
Some might think the right solution here is a gallows on the green at Westminster. The arrogance of these three Labour MP’s is unbelievable but in one way perhaps they represent a majority of those who sit in the Palace of Westminster – those who are the servants of the people but who think they are our masters.
Is fraud a Parliamental Priveledge? Surely not and if it is something is very wrong. Very wrong indeed.
“Parliamentary privilege” is that we .. permit & trust them to work on our behalf and in addition we pay them handsomely to do so honestly ..
We employ them & people who steal from their employers usually face a prison sentence ..
These thieves have no right to expect that they be treated any differently ..