The MSP expenses report was published recently and it's enough to make my head spin!
Scotland's representatives in Holyrood spent nearly £17.3 Million! On what? What exactly did they spend it on? As far as I can see it's mostly on office rental from property owners that also support certain MSP's election campaigns, or donate to their parties, and the other big expense is on hiring council colleagues family members to be based in one office, but spend time at home campaigning all year round. It's not the first time I've seen an MSP's Constituency office "Closed for staff training" conveniently timed for the staff to be found helping on polling days where the staff, being paid out of taxpayer's pockets, are walking the streets urging people to vote for their party's candidate!
Something similar was uncovered as a scandal some years ago where MPs of different parliaments were caught hiring their own wives and family members to be admin assistants but they were on full salaries but moonlighting on other things instead of the job they were claiming to be doing. SNP campaigners were amongst the most vocal during these days yet now they use a loophole to simply employ a fellow party councillor or MPs family instead.
Expenses in any workplace should be reasonable, justifiable and even transparent in the way that it works. Elected representatives and their expense claims cannot be open to such abuse!
This was one of the reasons I resigned from my former post with a rival political party. Their committee and leadership were ignoring the party's own rules and taking actions without any coherent explanation.
Then I was invited to join Choice.
Choice is a political party with a difference. One key aim of theirs is complete transparency. I was nominated to become the Spokesperson for the Constitutional Committee. This means that it is my job to oversee the committee commitment to the transparency promise.
As part of that transparency promise the Party will publish their finances and meetings to be accessible to it's members and voters, after all, we cannot afford to end up in a situation like the current members of UK parliaments where they say one thing but their funding is shadowy at best - criminally corrupt at worst.
It is my personal promise to ensure that Choice will uphold the highest of standards in the political world. Join today and help me make this a reality in parliament too!
Stef McNamara
Spokesperson for the Constitutional Committee
Choice Party UK