MPs travel expenses and excuses are NOT the ticket

It’s no wonder politicians regularly feature in the bottom 5 of the ‘Most Trusted’ occupations list produced by Reader’s Digest each year.

This week the papers have been dominated again by the international travel MPs and their partners have taken, largely at taxpayer expense – in some cases without even attending the meeting’s they went overseas for!

Instead, bunking-off to go sight-seeing is apparently in order for some senior politicians. For others, their travels ‘happen to coincide’ with family weddings, holidays and other events. Convenient, eh?

If not attending meetings in person is ok, why not use Skype or GoToMeeting.com from the comfort of the Beehive right here in Lil’ ‘ol Nu Zeelund? This wouldn’t cost the taxpayer anything, or at least a miniscule fraction of the cost of airfares for an MP and their partner to jet to the other side of the world and back.

The excuse that ‘it’s a tough life’ is one that’s routinely trotted out. Well, the obvious answer to that is don’t become a politician. It’s a tough life being a midwife, or a junior doctor, or a fire-fighter.

But then again, an anagram of ‘politicians’ is ‘solicit pain’ so I’m not surprised. I guess they’re only delivering on the implied expectation that they’ll operate true to type.

Some reputation losers all round. Roll-on the next general election.