Thursday 20 November 2008

MPs have double standards for blogs

Paul Flynn MP has had part of his parliamentary allowance cut for expressing personal opinions on his blog.

I believe it was outrageous for MPs to vote themselves £10,000 as an allowance for communications, something that was always going to be exploited for self-promotion, when they are already very well paid for what they do. However, once having been granted, the allowance should have been administered impartially. A MP should not be punished for rising above identikit lobby-fodder, especially when the expression of his opinions is not funded by Parliament. Paul Flynn has not changed the funding of his web-site since he first set it up yonks ago. The causticity of his views should not have been unknown to the authorities, pre-communications-allowance.

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