A laughable interview on the Today programme this morning by Sir Ian Kennedy, the head of IPSA and the man in charge of a review of MPs’ pay. Kennedy says it is time to trust MPs again on expenses:
“Two and a half years ago Parliament was mired in controversy about expenses scandal and looks what’s happened in those two and a half years: an independent body has been created, we’ve addressed business costs, we’ve addressed expenses, we’ve got a good system in place which works. What we’ve got to do is say, look, 2009 is not back with us. MPs are not in a situation where they’re not to be trusted and that there’s no system in place. Quite the opposite, there’s a new system and it’s quite unfair to say that MPs are not to be trusted.”
He must have forgotten all about Stephen Dorrell, Denis MacShane, Margaret Moran, Linda Riordan, Meg Munn, Andy Burnham, Chris Bryant, Helen Grant, Bill Cash, John Whittingdale, Peter Luff, Jessica Lee, David Amess, Kevin Barron and Don Foster. And that’s just during the last month…