U.K. spending a scandal

The British, not to be outdone by Canadians and our Senate expenses furor, are in the midst of their own expenses scandal. Current and former MPs who have not repaid improperly claimed expenses are being named and shamed.

Good on them. We should be so lucky as to have a body similar to the U.K.’s Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which is outing profligate elected officials left and right (in both senses of the phrase). The authority has released a list of 26 deadbeat MPs, including three cabinet ministers, who have failed to settle outstanding expense debts from last year.

MPs are issued a credit card they can use for parliamentary business only. It is forbidden to use the card for personal or political purposes; if they do so, they must repay the money.

And it appears the MPs have gone wild. Caroline Dinenage, the minister for equalities, is accused of failing to repay £13.50 after using her card to settle a bill for her constituency office telephone. That’s more than $27 in Canadian currency.

Former Conservative energy minister Charles Hendry, who stood down from parliament in May, was accused of spending £87.60 ($178) on a hotel in the London area, something the rules do not allow. Tory backbencher Stewart Jackson was listed as owing a £7.50 ($15) parking charge.

And so it goes. The total of all the outrageous spending by these high-living British MPs will nearly equal a week’s worth of living expenses claimed by Canada’s own Senator Mike Duffy.

Pikers, those British MPs. Wimps all. Not a $16 glass of orange juice among the lot of them.