I do mind paying for Elliot Morley's phantom mortgage, I do mind paying for both of Alastair Darling's homes to get done up, I do mind paying for Tory MPs' duck houses and I do mind paying for Michael COnnarty's £250 alarm clock.But I don't mind my taxes being used to pay for an odd wreath here or there.
The outrage over these wreaths is one that is beyond me. I fully accept that being a decreasingly sprighty 20-something coupled with the strength of feeling over all of this is such that I perhaps don't understand the complex emotions and intricate subplots that underpin the symbolism of poppy wreaths.
That said, it seems to me that a counter-argument to a public being outraged by MPs not paying for poppy wreaths themselves is why should a public be so discomifted at the prospect of paying for such an honourable mark of respect? I'd almost be embarrassed to fight paying that bill too forcefully.
Rememberance Day is for everyone to remember, not just our MSPs. So I guess I'm just a little confused what the message is if it's up to Helen Eadie, Angela Constance and their colleagues to foot the bill rather than a country at large.
3 comments:
Agreed. I don't see anything wrong with these claims for wreaths.
In fact - how many elected officials don't claim because they can't be arsed to remember our war dead ?
There's a feeding frenzy on at the moment,and even the smallest morsel is fought over.
I don't think it's the job of MSPs to provide what are semi-official offerings. Since WAR is a reserved matter shouldn't this be a job for Westminster anyway? How many MPS provided wreaths last year and how many claimed the cost back?
I thought the same when I heard about it. It's pathetic the lengths the papers are going to, to find a scalp at the moment.
Holyrood's very transparent and pretty immune to the scandals, and Westminster seems to be almost played out at the moment, so the rags are trying to find *anything* on MSP's to fill the now-expected daily inches on "pigs-in-the-troughs".
There are better stories than "MSP lays wreath on behalf of Parliament, ask Parliament to pay" stories.
What next? "MSP expects people to pay for office-costs and pay staff". Hell, "MSP expects salary for being MSP". I for one don't mind paying for a wreath to be laid by my local MSP, no matter which party he/she be from, because they're laying that wreath for me, for my neighbours, for everyone in the constituency/region.
Shameless newspaper filling like this is not only smearing otherwise-immaculate MSP's, it's also dishonouring the war-dead by using their image/name to try and do it.
Utter scumbags (the papers, that is)
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