Resign! Why don't you?

One member of the UK Parliament and three members of the House of Lords have been caught up in a sting arranged by newspaper journalists to see if they could get people in public life to accept money for lobbying on behalf of private companies.

I'm not too impressed with the sting. It's been done before. It was sleazy before and it's sleazy now. I'm not at all impressed by the reaction of David Cameron who apparently warned before the last election that lobbying was the next scandal waiting to break but did nothing about it once he got into government.

But I'm most unhappy with the reaction of the guys caught in the trap. The MP (a Tory) has resigned the party whip. He plans to stay in Parliament till 2015. He'll continue to draw his wages and his expenses for two years and leave Parliament with his pension intact. Meanwhile he can vote any way he likes and doesn't have to worry about representing the people who elected him.

The peers involved are not hereditary peers but were all appointed by political parties: the Northern Ireland Unionist has resigned the Tory whip. The two peers appointed by Labour have been suspended from the party. Presumably the three of them can continue to turn up and claim their attendance allowance and expenses. Do these people also get pensions when they retire from the House of Lords? Nae idea!  But there seems to be no question of them resigning and I for one would like to know why.

An "honour" - and boy, do I loathe these - is not for life. People have been stripped of honours before now and, if it's proved that these peers have agreed to accept money to represent private companies, they should lose their honours. If the charge against the MP is proved, he should give up his seat now, lose his salary and his pension.

I'm afraid this is just another area where Westminster and the electorate seem to be living in different worlds: if you're caught with your fingers in the till in 'real' life (it's called accepting a bribe), you get the sack. You lose the lot: wages, pension, status. Your chances of getting another job are probably nil. If you do that in Parliament, there seem to be no repercussions.

Maybe if politicians weren't living in such a protected wee world, they might not be so despised. Remember this when MPs ask for their 10% (or is it 20%?) payrise.