The scandal surrounding Peter Viggers' expenses claim for a duck island brings a whole new dimension to the notion that politicians are in it to feather their nests.
However, Sir Peter's pledge to stand down at the next election – forced out of him by Tory leader David Cameron - is not good enough. He must go now. He has done wrong, and therefore has no right to dictate when he should go. If an ordinary citizen committed an offence, we could not demand that our trial or imprisonment be delayed to suit us.
Until a new MP is elected, Gosport will have a lame duck representing it in Parliament – utterly discredited, he will be completely ineffective. Sir Peter might as well stay at home watching Countdown for the next 12 months for all the good he will be to us. Yet taxpayers will still have to fork out every month for his generous pay and expenses. Moreover, if he waits until the next election before standing down, he will get a tax-free pay-off of tens of thousands of pounds and will also be entitled to one of the most generous pensions in Britain – all of it paid for by us, the taxpayer.
In effect, he will have been handsomely rewarded for having blatantly defrauded us. Yet we will have been without an effective voice to stand up for us in Westminster during one of the worst recessions this country has ever seen.
David Cameron says that, because of the scandal surrounding MPs expenses, there should be an immediate general election. I agree with him wholeheartedly. If we follow his logic, though, there should be an immediate by-election in any constituency where an MP has been clearly found to have abused the system. If David Cameron has the courage of his convictions, he should tell Mr Viggers to resign his seat immediately so that the voters can have their say.
Mr Viggers is currently on another foreign trip, this time to Washington. Perhaps when he returns he could pop down to Gosport and listen to what his constituents have to say on the matter. And then do the honourable thing.
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Fully agree with you. Viggers is a Lame Duck. But he has always been lame. Dispite having had an uninterrupted run of 35 years as Gosport's MP he has very little to show for it.
He has always been quick to jump on a band wagon or photo opportunity, but the duck Island incident just proves that all the time he has just been feathering his own nest.
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