Lead story
JOBLESS: 2.2 MILLION AND RISING
by Caroline Colebrook
MEMBERS of Parliament of all the three main parties have been hugging the headlines as evidence of their personal greed and expenses fiddling emerges.
It is almost as though the ruling class prefers this scandal to fill the newspapers and news bulletins because it distracts from far greater scandals.
For a start, the personal greed and corruption of Britain’s bankers and landowners would dwarf that of the grubby little MPs, who take only thousands while the real ruling class pocket billions.
But the really big scandal is the effect all this is having on the daily lives of Britain’s working class. Last Tuesday’s official figures put the number of people out of work in Britain at 2.2 million, an increase of 244,000 in the first three months of 2009, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
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Editorials
Not playing the game
DISGUST AT MPs using expense claims to fill their boots from the public purse may have started as a Tory media ruse to embarrass Labour in the run-up to the local and European elections but now the Conservatives are being hit following revelations that senior Tories were on the make as well. The named MPs all point out that their claims were within the letter of the rules. But it is equally clear that the rules were not intended to provide a second income for members of the House of Commons.
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