They Still Don’t Get It

Some of the women in what used to be the honourable Houses of Westminster are revolting (insert your own joke here). Apparently the prospect of losing the privilege of a second home and travel allowances has sparked a protest.

MPs are already smarting at the recommendations made by Sir Christopher Kelly to try and clean up and restore the reputation of British politicians, blighted by The Daily Telegraph’s devastating revelations of their expenses abuse. The women on both sides of the house living within an hour’s commute to London, claim that not having a second London home to go to when they work late would leave them open to the vagaries of public transport and the streets of London, with the possibility of being mugged or raped. Oh, you poor things. Does this mean you’ll have to live the life of the rest of us? Perish the thought you’d be bought down to the same level as those of us who don’t have the means to get a taxi home, that have to use public transport to get to work at all hours of the night like cleaners and nurses, that have to negotiate the streets of London, that have to swallow silly statistics that tell us we’re safer than ever when experience tells us we’re not. Not for us a Police escort and a complementary Kevlar vest as we go about our business like Harriet Harman did as part of her walkabout in beautiful Peckham last year. If they’re protesting about the potential danger to their person it proves their policies haven’t worked. Perhaps a little sojourn to planet reality may make for better investments and laws, because if these people have to come off their ivory towers, they’ll do anything to make it better for themselves and ultimately, us.

The following phrase has been used so often it’s now become the mantra of the nation whenever we hear an MP complaining of their lot, with not a clue how we struggle to live within the laws of their making – “they just don’t get it.”