Shameful theft from the public purse
The ever-eager clerks in the Department of Work and Pensions attack the sick, the disabled and the unemployed, while all the time MPs and ministers are renovating their properties and enhancing their lifestyle at public expense.
New drugs and treatments are denied on cost grounds while saunas, gardens and Tudor beams are installed.
Normal folk are jailed for not having a TV licence, the elderly in England are locked up for not paying council tax and others are dragged into court if they fail to disclose one minute of paid employment, while MPs avoid tax on property deals.
Service personnel are sent into combat with inadequate gear while we pay a private security company to look after a millionaire's property because she didn't feel safe in London.
This is shameful theft from the public purse.
Bob Norton, Wigan
Ordinary folk do good for society
In spite of news about our greedy representatives in Westminster, there are still people who do good for the population at large, with no more reward that a warm feeling in the collective bosom.
The people who give their time and sometimes their own money, to care for the unloved and needy in our society, give far more real help than any platitude-spouting politician ever did.
These ordinary people who have no chance of buying their way to a seat in the upper chamber and minimal chance of even getting a minor gong, help total strangers because they care for others before themselves.
As long as this nation of ours can breed such precious cornerstones of society, it will always be a Great Britain, whose politicians will never be worthy enough to represent us.
Jim Walker, Preston, via email
Commons feeling the benefit
"No ifs, no buts – benefit fraud is a crime." So says the Benefits Agency.
That being the case, expenses fraud is a crime.
Moreover, with MPs being far better off than the vast majority of people who commit benefit fraud, then expenses fraud by our representatives in Westminster, has got to be the more serious.
When people get caught out trying to get one over on the taxman, they have to pay it back with interest.
Indeed, in the case of the Queen's once-favourite jockey, Lester Piggott, it earned him a spell in jail.
If there is no welcome mat in the community for fraudsters, then we can't possibly have one at the door of the House of Commons.
Allan Ramsey, Radcliffe Moor Road, Radcliffe
Complete loss of trust by British
This scandal has resulted in a complete loss of trust by the British people and MPs will have a much bigger battle on their hands than they think to regain it.
The expense payment I just cannot get to grips with is why they
should be allowed to claim 400 per month for food.
Clearly they should stand the cost themselves especially as their bars and restaurants in the Commons are highly subsidised.
I am a pensioner and am somewhat cushioned as I have an occupational pension.
But I manage mainly because I am not mobile so do not spend huge amounts on holidays or in shops.
I object strongly that my tax, of which I pay a fair amount, is going to allow these people to buy their luxury goods whilst they leave pensioners, in a poorer position than myself, to juggle eating or heating.
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Weather for Wigan
Friday 10 February 2012
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