A pungent mix of programming, philosophy, pedanticism, procrastination, perplexity, peripheral political polemic, and platters of preposterousness.
Ron Rosenbaum’s column for Slate regarding New Age 2012 end-of-the-world hucksterism is excellent. The history of failed prophecy is long and hilarious.
Readers, I’m sure that in the last few weeks, the storm of controversy regarding the gross misuse of public funds by MPs for moat-cleaning, chocolate biscuits and avoiding capital gains tax has not passed you by. Regrettable, of course, but not exactly unpredictable. I have a modest suggestion that would solve the problem extremely quickly, and serve a number of social interests and goals in the process.
It is this: we simply replace the second home allowance with state-owned accommodation for Parliamentarians. It would be available for any MP who is not within a reasonable commuting distance from London.
The state already own a large number of dwelling-places across the country: council houses, halls of residences and residential colleges within universities, the accommodation provided to key public service workers (police station-houses, nurses residences etc.), prisons, asylums, orphanages, nursing homes, judge’s residences, Army barracks (and a number of other military installations) and lighthouses. Given that the next Parliament will have 650 MPs, we can presume that roughly half - around 325 - would have a need for central London accommodation. The student accommodation I stayed in a number of years ago had spaces for 215 people. A government that is able to launch wars in multiple countries, run the largest health provider in the world, dole out benefits, run schools and organise large sporting venues would have no difficulty providing a student halls experience for Parliamentarians. The University of London’s Accomodation Office manages six halls, some of which are in the Bloomsbury/Russell Square area, with accomodation available for around £20 per night. If my university can provide student accomodation in W1/W2 for £20 a night, I’m sure the government could arrange similar accomodation such that both the moat-cleaners and the chocolate-biscuit claimers of all parties can be housed at a low cost to the taxpayer.
To ensure that Parliamentarians are in-touch with the living conditions of those outside of the Westminster bubble, the MPs housing would use the same standard fixtures and fittings provided in council, student or public sector key worker housing. The provision of this socially beneficial housing would free the many honest MPs from the taxing demands of having to determine whether or not their spending on fittings for their second homes has reached a level considered obscene by the man on the proverbial Clapham omnibus. The Parliamentarian may spend his time considering the important matters of state: ensuring a lasting peace, providing excellent public services, ensuring that schools and hospitals are fit-for-purpose and so on. All these important matters of state and country could now be primary in the mind of the Parliamentarian, rather than the variety of hi-fi equipment or curtains or dishwashers he can purchase on expenses.
Financially, it would make a great deal of sense for the government: a suitable building would not be difficult to find in London, and the state would then own the equity on the MPs Hall of Residence. The security costs for running such a building would be lower than the costs of hiring security for every Parliamentarian dotted across the nation’s capital. It would provide a true boarding school experience for MPs, replete with many possible newspaper-selling scandal opportunities. (I can imagine it now: MPs Twittering about who left the toilet seat up and stealing each other’s food).
Socially, MPs of all the major parties would now have a shared residence, and they could come to appreciate each other’s political perspectives better. It would also provide a method to disable many forms of sleaze: if a rich businessman keeps on turning up at the MPs quarters with brown envelopes bulging with cash, the public interest could be served with logs of the timing of his visits.
If any of the major parties wishes to reform the system as they keep saying, my proposal would do so quite simply.
