Recently a Teacher friend of mine was given a gift from one of her pupils as an end of the school year gift. On it it read “Three reasons to be a Teacher: Christmas, Easter and Summer Holidays.” The perks of having so much time off from their job is not only exclusive to Teachers, because from today MPs will take a massive eighty-two days holiday away from the The House of Commons.
While the country's problems deepen its good to know that the elected guardians of our country will be resting at home or swanning off around Europe without a care. During this three month break many of them will enjoy up to two holidays away.
The War in Afghanistan continues, the Swine flu Pandemic grows and a worsening Economic recession mean that thousands of families will suffer this Summer and many will not be able to afford even one holiday.
Instead of dealing with the nation's crisis's and making decisions to improve things, MPs will enjoy days at home on full pay, drinks by the pool in some hot country and days out with their families with the cash they managed to hoard while they creamed the taxpayer for every other essential and non-essential item over the last twelve months by their expenses's claim.
If the expenses crisis wasn't enough to make them feel more remorseful and shorten their break they have sent a resounding “Up yours” to the public who now suffer from Ministerial mistakes to spot the banking crisis and the ensuing economic disaster that has led to unemployment not seen for almost a decade. Quite literally, they have turned their backs on the problems that they helped create or could have done more to prevent.
In eighty-two days many MPs will return to work and some of them won't deserve a job to come back to. In a more determined Democracy they would have a much tougher time. In this country its the public that legitimises Parliament and its the MPs elected that are supposed to represent the public. Its a complete fallacy. MPs represent themselves first, they decide what they should earn, what perks they should get and how much vacation they should enjoy.
We used to believe that MPs made sacrifices in order to lead our country. Now they have been caught with their snouts in the trough, filling their pockets by using a ridiculous expenses system to inflate their salaries, fraudulently dodging their own commitments to pay taxes and taking holidays that would make even a teacher feel hard done by.
