THOSE dozen Tory MPs and two Labour members who defied the new "Nolan" rules on declaring the extra earnings they receive through their positions at Westminster defy integrity too.
For if they insist that their additional income is nothing to do with those who elect them, they should be financially separated from the electorate - by having their pay as MPs docked. After all, if they refuse to be accountable to the people they purport to represent, they should be reminded that people they represent come first, not any of their own interests - least of all those carried out at the expense of doing a full-time job as an MP.
If they want to moonlight and keep it dark, why should we pay them too?
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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