@kevbo Tony Blair purported to be left wing, The Labour Party traditionally represented the working class, but the reality was that he shrewdly courted the left wing voters whilst discreetly wooing the middle classes and the corporate sector. So in short he sold out, in order to secure a Labour government. The Political landscape in Britain became homogeneous, Labour having forfeited all it’s left wing credentials. Parliament lost it’s dissident voice, it’s scrutiny, integrity and any remnants of an ideology, reducing the institution to nothing more than a bureaucratic, administration, serving the financial sector primarily and any other powerful profiteering enterprise. Parliamentary members are predominately impotent, politically speaking, too comfortable to stick their head above the parapet, thanks to a self regulated, self serving expense system that offers very lucrative perks, way beyond the standard salary. Because of the current economic turmoil, people are turning their attention to the ludicrous misuse of public money, claimed by MPs (members of parliament) for items and services that bear no relation to the day to day expenses one would incur as a public servant, for example a cabinet member’s husband rented out a couple of pornographic videos and claimed the money as a legitimate expense. A small amount of money compared to others who have claimed substantial money for Novelty Garden improvements, home improvements, mortgage interest (when the mortgage had already been paid off)
Basically the parliamentary members, of all persuasions, had manufactured an expense system of their own construction which served their personal interests, without any outside regulation, that was perfectly legal even if it were highly exploitable and morally dubious. Institutional corruption basically.