Can politicians recover from the expenses row?

[Dan2nd]

3000th Post

The Speaker of the House of Commons has been challenged by MPs to stand down in unprecedented scenes in the chamber on Monday. Has politics been permanently damaged?

Michael Martin did not mention his future in a statement on the expenses furore - instead setting out urgent action to reform the system following a week of damaging media revelations about MPs' expenses.

But a succession of MPs challenged him openly saying they wanted a debate and a vote of no confidence in him. Currently the rules prevent such a debate.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has called for Michael Martin to resign while MPs from all parties have signed a motion of no confidence, amid criticism of the way the Speaker handled the expenses row.

Have you lost faith in politicians? How can MPs regain your trust? Is it enough to pay back the money claimed on expenses? Have these revelations put you off voting?

I'm not going to pretend to know much about politics but here is my two cents:

The annoying thing about this is how they all keep saying that they are 'sorry' and things have to 'change' when the fact of the matter is everyone who has been caught be it the Liberal Democrats,the Conservatives or the Labour party would have quite happily continued abusing the system if none of this had come out. In my opinion they are only sorry that they have been caught and only want to change things because they now have to.

[Immenseman]

Like you, I'm hardly full of knowledge regarding politics. However, in general I am bored of this story. They were given the chance to corrupt the system, they did. Ultimate power = ultimate corruption. If you give people the chance to claim for things left right and centre they're bound to take full advantage. I will happily admit I would have abused the system too. I'm not saying what they done is right but merely that they're only human and realised the system was there to be abused.

The only good thing is that the parties aren't blaming each other, from what I've seen anyway. The all know they're all in the wrong and in a bad light with the public. They realise they have to get the public back on their side rather than attacking each other.

I think they will recover through time. Time heals wounds.

[UKIP]

I agree and I think they should face criminal charges and parliament should be dissolved now by the Queen. The consquences for the big three parties now will be the rise of the smaller parties, mostly UKIP and that will cause trouble in future for the Conservative Party as the EU issue rips the party apart when brought into the open, and led to the fall of Margaret Thatcher. It is not all good as I don't want to see the Conservative fighting an internal sturggle whilst in power, but as the EU grows into an ever bigger issue the Conservatives will be forced to make a decision instead of sitting on the fence on the issue, and that I think is a bonus from this expenses row.

I'm exceptionally glad UKIP is expected to do very well, and people may say that is because people are turning against the big three, that may be true, but the fact is, why have UKIP gone from around 6% share of the polls to 15%+ share while parties like the Greens and BNP are flatlining and struggling to get over 5%.

[Caution]

Millions of people are expected to trust them after they have spent thousands of taxpayers money. They can clearly easily afford the items they put on their expenses as some of them are paying it back, one around 40k I think so money's not an issue for them. I know people say they would have done it themselves if they could, but they are in a high position and in my opinon shouldn't be trusted now. I don't know a lot about politics, but that's my opinon anyway.

[Inseriousity.]

Politicians will recover but I think Labour's time is limited...

It did provide a joke for my sociology exam though

[Fez]

UK Politicians have never been relatable to the public, and quite frankly they haven't made much of an effort. With Gordon Brown being a bloody idiot about just around everything, it's becoming more and more obvious that the government is only making things worser.

With the MPs expenses business, which made me actually ashamed of my own political system, all hope is gone. What they've done is created a gap so wide between political power and public power, it's making us feel small. In the next month in the European elections and local elections, change is going to come. We can't really affect the government's choices, but we can change who makes those decisions.

On another note, I expect Labour to not last another year. Either that or Gordon Brown.

[ToxicPaddy]

If if was us who took thousands of pounds out of taxpayers money and spend it on crap, we would be in prison by now. Why aren't they? I know there was no clear rules put in place but there's a limit! I have always supported Labour but I am seriously changing to Conservative recently. Makes me so mad every time I see this on the news and all they talk about is 'we will change' - ********!

[Dan2nd]

We have to remember though it wasn't just Labour abusing the system though all three of the main stream partys are guilty

[ToxicPaddy]

We have to remember though it wasn't just Labour abusing the system though all three of the main stream partys are guilty

Yes, but Cameron is making the MPs pay back what they have taken and making them apologize. But Brown is saying that he 'will not rule out any sanction' but hasn't made clear what those sanctions will be yet.

[GommeInc]

Yes, but Cameron is making the MPs pay back what they have taken and making them apologize. But Brown is saying that he 'will not rule out any sanction' but hasn't made clear what those sanctions will be yet.

It's very likely they would of been forced to apologize whether Cameron was to make them or not, the media would of caught them and made them, as would other party members.