I did not listen to BBC radio for the rest of the day, but Sunday morning they were still on about it – when Radio 5’s 10am presenter promised that they would ‘of course’ be giving their own their ‘own take’ on events at Westminster I just gave up again.
Late at night I caught a bit of banter with Frances Finn the stand in presenter for Stephen Nolan on Radio 5 – Stephen would be very annoyed not to have been working when the big story broke. But of course he got his twopennorth standing in for Victoria Derbyshire on Monday morning with a phone in on the hottest topic of the moment.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury had resigned following assertions in the Daily Telegraph that he had broken the rules on MPs expenses.
The civil service used to have something commonly known as the T&S code which spelled out all the rules concerning what could be claimed by way of travel expenses & subsistence allowances to cover costs incurred during the course of ones official duties (it wasn’t until the scandal over MP’s expenses broke that I understood how crucial is that distinction between allowance & expense). Each government department had its own version available to staff – the full version covering all the ranks & grades & variety of office holders contained far too much information. For some reason however I was once shown a copy of this vast tome & enjoyed a few Fancy That! moments looking at the rules that someone once upon a time had needed to set down to explain how the general principles applied to some novel situation. The only bits I remember now were that all civil servants, regardless of rank or grade, were entitled to travel first class on trains in Coal Mining Areas, & that there was a complex schedule of allowances payable if you were accommodated overnight in an officer’s mess (complete with a table of equivalent army ranks & civil service grades).
What, I wonder, will a future researcher make of the detailed rules in the MPs new code which specify the circumstances in which it is proper for them to pay rent for accommodation, & the kind of supporting documentation which must be provided to satisfy the auditors that the landlord (especially a resident landlord) is a fit & proper person to receive payments of rent disbursed from public funds? It will be like reading the Table of Kindred and Affinity in the Book of Common Prayer.
Of course the news was important, but most of what was broadcast was speculation, some of it prurient. The BBC really needs to recover a sense of proportion.
At least today I have managed not to hear a single mention; finally we are being told of far more important events in Israel & Louisiana which have really serious implications for our future
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