Sir, It is rather sad that our politicians have not appeared to have
learnt their lesson from the ways that they have let down the British public in
the past. We all remember the expenses scandal; it will be a long time before
the voters forget that their elected representatives were billing the public for
ludicrous expenses such as moat cleaning and duck houses.
It therefore shocks and surprises me to see that in 2015, Sarah Champion,
the Labour MP for Rotherham has billed the taxpayers £17 to pay for a wreath of
poppies presented on Remembrance Day. Most shameful of all is that she described
this tribute to our war dead as a “necessary expense” as part of her office
costs.
Not only does this act seem disrespectful to the taxpayers, our armed
forces and our veterans; but in my opinion it is yet another abuse of our
expenses system. One would assume that a politician’s morals and values would
be enough to prevent this sort of malpractice. If that wasn’t enough you would
also think that the fear of more discrediting newspaper headlines such as those
we saw in the run up to the last General Election would discourage MPs from
dishonourable acts such as this.
This saddening situation just shows yet again that our out of touch
political class don’t seem to care about the people of this country. They come
across to the public as being too busy worrying about quangos, expenses and
squeezing all they can from the hard working taxpayers.
What we need is a shake up within our political system and a new breed of
politicians in Westminster who will put the needs of the people before their own
financial gain.
Jonathan Arnott MEP
UKIP, North East
