by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: May 29, 2009

On the eve of the European elections the main issue dominating political discourse is the need for constitutional reform, following revelations about MPs' expenses. The leaders of the main political parties are desperately trying to outdo each other in their calls for comprehensive changes to parliament, not just the expenses system, in an attempt to tackle the British public's disaffection with politics. The political class is suddenly worried that ordinary British people are going to look to cast their vote for representatives of extremist parties out of their disdain for mainstream politicians, and are rooting around for ways to re-engage with the people they are supposed to represent.

What is most galling about the expenses scandal is that it took the 'Daily Telegraph' to reveal the systemic problem of politicians claiming money for goods and services which they were not legitimately entitled to, despite the many protestations that their claims were 'within the rules'. If these politicians really believed that why are so many of them lining up to hand cash back? The government had constantly tried to exempt politicians from the Freedom of Information Act so that their expenses would have been kept out of the public domain. Eventually the government agreed that the receipts for MPs' expenses would be published, but not until summer, and the Telegraph got there first. It is now clear why many MPs were reluctant for their expenses claims to be revealed.

The expenses claims range from petty items such as bath plugs to the ridiculous cleaning of moats and installation of duck houses. MPs from all sides have been found wanting, but Labour and the Conservatives have been worst hit. A few Liberal Democrats have made some dubious expense claims, but nothing on the scale of politicians from the other two main parties, and the Liberals have always pushed for reform - unlike the other two parties who are opportunistically trying to exploit the situation to their advantage.

MPs are legitimately allowed to claim for mortgage interest payments on second properties, which enables them to maintain properties in London and their constituencies, but some politicians have been 'flipping' which of their properties is their primary residence. Others have avoided paying capital gains tax on the properties they have sold. What is considered to be fraud in the real world doesn't seem to apply to politicians - it appears to be one law for politicians and another for the rest of us.

Disillusionment with politics has been growing in Britain for some time; the expenses scandal just seems to have confirmed what most people have long suspected. British politicians seem to be a class apart from the people they are meant to represent, and the public is cynical about politicians' attempts to reform a system which has changed so little over the decades and which seems to benefit them more than the ordinary population. It is hard to imagine a time when this situation is likely change, no matter how much politicians talk up the possibility of change.

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