Why are working class crimes demonised more ?

There is a part of society which is out of touch completely it is not the working class it is the MP's. It is nothing new i am well aware but working class crimes and punishments are far more excessive than MP's and teh ruling class's crimes and punishments. They simply do not fit.
For example just this week people rioting were getting jail sentances not fitting their crime. We have seen a sharp rise in politically motivated arresting and jailing of the working class. I do sense this is down to the fact we as workers are becoming more politisised and becoming more of a threat to the ruling class so the hardest line must be taken on us. This i'm afraid will not work as you can only keep the working class down for so long. There will be more of us and more angry and annoyed and frustrated at the lack of a working class representation on a mainstream scale.

In the past you used to have left wing labour MP's. Proper ones not the trendy ones you have today ones who stood up for working class people and offered an alternative to the tories and their class war on the working class. This is no more and ordinary working people are feeling cut off from society and teh world around them as they are facing increased job cuts and cuts in living standards. How can we expect MP's and labour MP's in particular when they themselves have been dabbling in the expenses tin claiming what the hell they can get their hands on. It is a break down in society that has failed us all from the top to the lower regions. This is another consequence of a greedy capitalist system which simply encourages greed and individualism.

Swansea West Labour MP, Geraint Davies, commenting on the rioting in Croydon, an area he used to represent in parliament, stated: "...it is clear what we have seen is just opportunist criminality."

He should know. In 2004-05, when Davies was MP for Croydon Central he claimed the highest expenses of any MP in the country, a staggering £176,026.

Despite Croydon being only 12 miles or a 20-minute commute from London Victoria, this included overnight cost allowance and £4,000 renovating his designated second home, a flat in Westminster.

The difference is that, unlike looting electrical goods, MPs' opportunism isn't considered criminal. It just feels that way to us, the victims.


Expense which have become the norm in the Westminster bubble of out of touch from reality careerist polititians racked up expenses totally huge amounts year on year at our expense.

A former MP jailed for expenses fraud claimed the second highest amount of parliamentary allowances last year, records have revealed.

Eric Illsley, the former Barnsley Central Labour MP, received £151,245 in 2010-11.

In January he admitted falsely claiming £14,500 of expenses between 2005 and 2008, and was jailed for 12 months, but was released in May. Illsley clung on to his parliamentary seat until nearly a month after pleading guilty.

The new figures, released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), show Illsley's allowances claims included £38,690 in winding-up costs. They also included £3,905 for accommodation and £5,224 for travel and food.

MPs claimed a total of £70.6m in parliamentary expenses over the financial year, down from £98m in 2009-10, when the system was still operated by the Commons Fees Office.

The prime minister, David Cameron, received £106,056, almost all of which went on staffing, although he claimed £272 to cover travel and subsistence.

The records show that the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who claimed £74,357, was given a £4,000 advance on his expenses. After criticism from MPs that payments were taking too long, the Ipsa chairman, Sir Ian Kennedy, agreed last May to give some money upfront to cover office and travel costs.

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, claimed a total of £110,878, including £13,411 to cover accommodation and £1,592 for travel and subsistence.

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, received the highest payment. His claims totalled £173,922.

Dan Jarvis, who succeeded Illsley as Labour MP for Barnsley Central following a byelection in March, had the lowest total payment. He received just £520, which covered travel and food costs.


Hundreds of MPs were ordered to repay a total of more than 1 million pounds in the wake of the expenses scandal which caused widespread anger and an overhaul of the system.

Newspaper revelations showed MPs had made claims for items ranging from toilet paper to dog food, moat cleaning and ornamental duck houses, tainting members of all major parties.

David Chaytor, 61, who had been an MP in northern England, admitted at an earlier hearing to fraudulently claiming more than 20,000 pounds in taxpayer-funded expenses.

The judge, Justice John Saunders, said Chaytor had breached the trust placed in MPs by the public and had subsequently been vilified and humiliated.

"That is an inevitable consequence for people who aspire to and achieve important public positions together with the influence which goes with those positions and who then defraud the public who elected them," he said.

"The public understandably feel cheated by what has happened."

The former Labour Party MP had claimed 22,650 pounds for rent for houses owned by himself and by his mother, and also for IT services that he had received free of change.

As a result, he was paid 18,350 pounds from the public purse, all of which he has now repaid.

Following the sentencing, Chaytor was expelled from the Labour Party, the Press Association reported.

Chaytor, who had previously denied the charges, faced a maximum of seven years in jail, but had been expected to receive a more lenient sentence because of his eventual guilty plea.

He will also have to foot the legal bill for both his defence and the costs of bringing the prosecution against him.

At the time the expenses row broke, Chaytor, apologised "unreservedly" for what he called an "unforgivable error in my accounting procedures."

Three other former MPs and two members of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of parliament, were also charged by police in relation to their expenses and are due to face trial.




So when we see people lower down the class ladder commiting crimes and thinking they can get away with it why should they think twice when they see MP's and bankers taking liberties and helping themselves to the pot having the hand and grabbing waht they can. What sort of example does this set. I would suggest all MP's and elected representitives including councillors should only take the average skilled workers wage. Just like Dave Nellist and Terry Fields did in the 80's when the yrepresented Covernty and Liverpool as Militant MP's. Not taking anymore than they needed to do their job of representing their voters who had placed trust in them to represent them and their views.

Maybe the distrust of MP's and polititians has been encouraged by the fact they are just as greedy as the bankers and in affect are no better than a banker. The media, polititians and the police are all entangled in a vicious greed bubble which they cannot escape from and to make matters worse they do not wish to. They are the have's and we are the have not's and they do not wish this to change. Be under no illusions who the real criminals in society are.

The case for a elected representitive to just take a average skilled workers wage

I feel there is a growing distrust of polititians in this country and across the world to be honest. It is still very fresh in peoples minds the expenses scandel of our elected polititians in this country decided to put the bill for all their fancy goods and luxury lifestyles on the heads of the electorate . Well how dare they ? so rightly so they are being punished this will result in a complete distrust of any MP i would think. No doubt this trust will be hard to win back and may not even ever come back.

Just today we hear of the latest figures for this year 2011.

In total, almost 25,000 claims were submitted and £3.2m was paid. Eighty four MPs had a total of £4,633 they asked for rejected.


Ipsa also revealed that MPs have spent £880,000 on official payment cards - similar to credit cards - since May 2010.

The cards - which have a monthly credit limit of £4,000 - were originally meant to pay for travel alone, but can now also be used for hotels, utilities and other bills.

This i find personally disgusting and provocative in the face of austerity measures to the working class.

The anger and disgust that people, already privileged with high salaries and positions, should then fraudulently claim thousands of pounds of expenses to which they were not entitled, is widespread.

A recent British Social Attitudes survey found that 60% of those questioned thought politicians "almost never" told the truth and only 28% trusted MPs not to fiddle their expenses.

The new rules set up in the wake of recent scandals in Parliament are administered by the Independent Parliamentary Scrutiny Authority; and already some MPs are complaining about it.

Those MPs will clearly have the heartfelt sympathy of tens of thousands of families who have had to challenge benefit decisions, or who now face massive cuts in essential services as part of the biggest austerity programme for generations. Or perhaps not!

MPs are already very privileged, receiving a basic wage almost three times the average. That, and the level of their generous expenses allowances, insulates and isolates them from the normal problems affecting the majority of the people they represent.

The Socialist Party requires all its members elected into public positions, such as MPs, to take the same wage as that of a skilled worker. When Dave Nellist , Terry Fields and Pat Wall were MPs in the 1980s, that worked out at around 40% of an MP's wage, or the equivalent of £26,000 today.

The 'surplus' was donated to socialist and trade union campaigns and causes, and accounts were regularly published in newsletters to be transparent.

Expenses should only be allowed where clearly necessary to do the job, and again be published and accountable, particularly to the working people locally who had elected that representative.

Much of the protocols of an MP's life, and the privileges lavished on them, are designed to suck them into defence of the system, so that (whether consciously or not) they feel more in common with the rulers than the ruled.

Breaking with those traditions, living in the area that you represent, and on the same wages, facing the same bills and problems as working people in a constituency can go some way to countering those pressures, and start restoring faith that elected, socialist officials would be different.

Only the Socialist Party regularly and consistently argues for that, and has the track record to prove it is not just simply words.


THE SHEER arrogance of MPs is astounding. Caught like rabbits in a car's headlights, they still claim they did nothing wrong when they asked us to pay for everything from KitKats to clearing out the family moat! Some of them are now offering to pay back some money but only because of the outrage from ordinary workers.

The only thing more astounding than the arrogance is the excuses. Apparently, MPs have to be able to claim lavish expenses so they can get to work on time.

One MP, whose constituency is in Luton, had her second home in Southampton, so she could maintain her relationship with her partner. No doubt, low-paid women workers who often have to take up several different jobs to secure a decent wage will be sympathetic!

Women who clean offices in the morning, work as teaching assistants or in a school kitchen by day, then have another job in the evening will know all about not seeing their family and ensuring that they get to each job on time. Not for them though, the luxury of a second home and taxi fares at taxpayers' expense.

Even when they clearly acted against the rules, MPs' excuses are that they over-claimed as they were 'too busy' to check. The trade union members who I represent would have been disciplined and sacked if they had used such a lame defence if they had ever been found to have over-claimed.

Yet, while MPs are living it up, we're expected to tighten our belts to pay for the economic crisis.


We need real workers' representatives to stand up for workers. The politicians, the government and the councils are not listening. We need a voice for the working class. This is why TUSC have stood candidates in this years local elections and will continue to do so to provide a working class socialist alternative that can benifit the majority not just the few.