Another ex-MP charged with expenses fraud

- to just throw them all in jail alongside the rioters?

Just wait for it - rioters get "swift justice" - but I guarantee this MP like all the others will be "stressed" etc etc and it will drag on for months.

What's the betting that whilst a bottle of water warrants 6 months inside, £60k of taxpayers money is treated far more leniently.

Why are the names of people charged released for publication, surely this by it's very nature casts doubt on that persons good character before the facts are established and leaves a stain regardless of the decision. Applies to nurses as well as MP's

MP's sentences so far have been far from lenient and lets face it a projectile risks life and limb and a lifetimes loss of earnings ?

I know my views might not necessarily be shared by many, but I think the MPs have been a bit hard done by.

When the Blair government came to power, I think that there was a recognition that MPs were not brilliantly paid, but they were encoured to fully claim their expenses.

This was a much more egalitarian cohort of MPs, without private incomes. It is no coincidence that the majority of those charged are Labour polititions.

I think there was an element of "just claim - it'll be alright" going on.

Retrospectively they have been tried in the court of public opinion, and received some pretty stiff sentences. They could justifiably claim they were just doing what they were encouraged to do.

Just my two pennarth.

Still It might encourage them to read the laws they approve and perhaps consider the application for them and the little people.

Then again I suspect many have completely missed the point and moved onto the next get rich quick scheme.

I have to disagree.

Firstly you assume that Labour MPs are "working class" whereas the last Labour government actually had more millionairres in it than the current Conservative government.

Secondly, people hate hypocrasy. The last government encouraged HMRC to act in a draconian fashion. Fiddle a few pounds on your tax, or in benefits, and the whole weight of the law is brought to bear complete with confiscation orders etc, so, quite rightly the public is insisting that those same standards be applied to MP's.

Have any politicians found guilty of benefits fraud been the subject of confiscation orders?

How does this compare with taxpayers being the subject of dispropportionate confiscation orders following enquiry when the sums underdeclared including penalties and interest are marginally over the threshold?

Am I comparing unlike scenarios?