Ugly face of politics

Sadly, the fact that MPs have abused their expenses system did not come as a surprise.
It was the scale of the abuse which shocked, as did seeing our own David Heathcoat-Amory, MP for most of mid-Somerset, pilloried on the front page of the Daily Telegraph.
At least he has repaid the £380 price of horse manure for his home garden in Pilton, but several serious questions need to be answered.
Why are MPs able to set up the system for paying their own expenses?
Why are they able to act as judge and jury on their own failings in claiming expenses?
How can the party leaders claim they did not know there was widespread abuse by their own MPs?
How have MPs who say they are poorly paid with a salary of “only” £64,000 suddenly found thousands to repay “mistakes” in their expenses claims?
How many people will not vote in protest at the expenses scandal?
How many people will switch their votes from the main parties to more extreme alternatives?
Politics do matter to us all, and we cannot afford wide-scale disillusionment with the way our country is run.We need radical and urgent cross-party reform of Parliament to introduce transparency and restore public confidence in politics and politicians.
Philip Welch