Parliament sitting through August...

If this is true, then the Conservatives are to be commended. People are deeply disenchanted with the political establishment and this is not going to subside in the absence of MPs’ activity in Westminster. As Dan Hannan said earlier today, what would be ideal is for parliament to sit as little as possible. But the integrity of the House is genuinely at stake here. I was canvassing in Leamington Spa several weeks ago and of the 100 or so houses I went to, not a single one pledged to vote either Labour or Conservative. Now whilst I understand that this might not be reflective of the nation as a whole, it is certainly not encouraging. In one case, I was shouted down by a man who insisted that his neighbourhood receive a bird house like the one claimed through expenses. People are not letting this go, and they won’t until they see action.

An MP I spoke to over the summer (whose name I will not give) raised a particularly interesting point, however. Of course reform is needed, he said, but something else has dramatically contributed to this whole furore. 50 years ago MPs represented constituencies to which they had no affiliation; Churchill was MP for Stretford, for instance. But in recent we have seen a surge of opinion which holds that prospective MPs should know a constituency through and through and, what’s more, that they should live there. This creates a situation in which the vast majority of MPs are forced to live in far flung corners of the country despite needing to be in London. The MP I spoke to saw no problem with an MP living exclusively in London and representing a constituency elsewhere.

I think he’s right.

Allow MPs to live solely in London whilst ensuring that they are well clued up on local issues in their constituency and you completely remove the need for second homes. I did some work for an MP last year who represents an Essex constituency. After just two weeks I felt fairly competent in discussing issues related to that constituency, having never been there in my life. Not living in a particular area does not mean you are unfit to represent it so long as you are committed to the representative element of your role as a Member of Parliament. If anything, not having to constantly flit between two places will aid a representative’s ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Residence in one’s constituency two days a week at most is nothing but a superficiality, and in dropping this pretence that it is somehow a necessity we will in turn save billions.

Reform the expenses procedure and regulations for the Commons and you take away the immediate problems. But the potentiality will exist until we address the fundamental causes; the reasons that some MPs feel compelled to act this way. Upon addressing this, we will solve this conundrum once and for all.