An open letter to Nadine Dorries

Since the comments on her blog appear to be dysfunctional,* I thought I'd post them here:

Oh, poor you. I've been watching your public meltdown with some horror, and wondering to myself: is this woman actually fit to be making the laws of this country?

Let's face it, Nadine, no matter how you dress it up, MP's brought this upon themselves. And you can't even use the "few bad apples" rubbish, because it sounds like half or possibly more of currently sitting MP's will lose their jobs because of this. It's not a minority. I am quite certain that 600+ MP's would have been sacked by my employer for making repeated claims that did not even abide by the very generous Green Book guidance, if my employer used the Green Book. But rest assured, Nadine, my employer's expense policy is much, MUCH stricter than yours and our expenses checkers are not compliant and do not encourage us to use our expenses as a salary top-up, they are tough and will question the smallest amount of money. I have had to justify spending £2 on a cup of coffee for a customer.

Not that you would know what a cup of coffee costs in the unsubsidised, taxed, real world.

Don't give the electorate a sob story about how difficult and financially unrewarding it is, because if that were really the case, you'd be struggling to find people to sit in Parliament, and there is no shortage of people wanting to be a candidate, is there?

£60K-plus is a good wage, and I (and everybody but the most swivel-eyed) would have no problem with MP's claiming reasonable, auditable and audited expenses for their jobs. Your pettifogging hooey about "only the rich will be able to afford to be MP's" is a crock of ordure, nobody wants that. You are setting up a straw man argument here.

What we want is for MP's to be as honest as they expect us to be. You make the rules by which we all have to live, and then in a display of bare-faced effrontery, exempt yourselves from the most annoying of these. You are allowed to use accountants tax-free to fill in your tax returns; we are not. You are allowed to exempt yourselves from appearing in various state databases; we are not. You are allowed to smoke in your place of work; we are not. You use taxpayer money to subsidise the food and drink in your place of work; we get nothing.

And please stop the pathetic mewling about "little old me" and realise that you live an exalted life compared to all but the richest in Britain. Other people may have more money, but they have to use their own money to exempt themselves from the more unpleasant rigours of British life, while you and your fellow MP's can achieve this at the stroke of a pen at someone else's expense.

Shame on you.

Update: Found this lovely comment from Brizzle:

My heart bleeds, you disgraceful grasping little shit of a woman.

Excellent!

*Much like she is, the mad old bat.