The Sunday Herald continues its campaign against the Parliament's Edinburgh Accommodation Allowance. After last week's revelations about John Home Robertson MSP, it is now the turn of Tavish Scott MSP (here) and Ross Finnie MSP (here) to be criticised, although neither has done anything illegal.
It is awfully easy to discredit the Accommodation Allowance but it is far from clear how it should be changed. If you accept that MSPs who live in the remoter parts of Scotland should be given financial help with their accommodation in Edinburgh for the purposes of attending parliament, how do you define a system to support reasonable costs, while preventing MSPs from making a packet out of it? The Sunday Herald offers little by way of constructive comment. But it should not be beyond the wit of even the parliamentary authorities to recoup at least the capital gains on property investment made by MSPs and their families with the support of the Allowance.
And what are the parliamentary authorities doing about it? Nothing appears to be the answer, other than sitting tight and hoping that the storm will pass.
1 comment:
It is awfully easy to discredit the Accommodation Allowance but it is far from clear how it should be changed. If you accept that MSPs who live in the remoter parts of Scotland should be given financial help with their accommodation in Edinburgh for the purposes of attending parliament, how do you define a system to support reasonable costs, while preventing MSPs from making a packet out of it?
Simple - the government should simply buy/build a block of council flats, and the MSP's should be allocated one to live in. Or better just place them in existing council accomadation.
Afterall most of them profess adherence to socialism, and that means they believe people should take what the state gives them like it or not.
Or does that compromise their 'some pigs are more equal than others' philosophy?
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