Sheer incompetence

I'm sorry. This has nothing at all to do with ham radio, and it may mean nothing to readers from outside the UK who have not been following the sorry saga of our Members of Parliament expenses frauds. But some things just have to be said.

The number of times an MP has "explained" a claim for something they didn't have or weren't entitled to claim for as "a mistake" beggars belief. How can claiming for interest payments on a mortgage they didn't have be "a mistake"? If these people are that careless, ought they to be in charge of running the country? (Come to think of it, they were that careless. Look at the banking crisis and the mess the country is in.)

If I accidentally forget to declare some income on my tax return and the Inland Revenue finds out, presumably all I have to do is say "it was a mistake" and they will let me off? Somehow I doubt it.

I don't just think there should be an election, I think that every MP who has been found to have made fraudulent expenses claims - in other words, just about all of them - should face prosecution, just like any member of the electorate who made a fraudulent claim for social security benefits. Which means that none of them would be able to stand for re-election. That would teach them.