Rumours of Kelly - have they really thought this through?

This morning, The Times reports that the Kelly review on MP expenses is expected to recommend that those MPs whose nearest railway station is an hour or less from Westminster will no longer be able to claim a second home allowance. For example, from an East Anglian perspective, Eric Pickles (Brentwood and Ongar) will lose the right to claim, whilst Bob Russell (Colchester) will retain it.

In principle, it seems fair that MPs should experience the same lifestyle that many of their constituents experience, the daily commute being part of it. In the current environment, where hostility to politicians and their works is seemingly unlimited, there is a sense that MPs should be more like the rest of us.

And yet I have a little honest doubt, as someone who has commuted for most of his adult life. Yes, I grew used to losing two, sometimes three hours a day to the haul into and out of the city, but I was only working a thirty-six hour week. My hours, whilst flexible, roughly equate to a nine to five day. Is that true for MPs?

Last night, I flicked through the television channels and BBC Parliament was still broadcasting live coverage of the House of Commons at 10.25 p.m. (the House finally adjourned at 10.27 p.m.). So, if Crispin Blunt was going to head back to Reigate, he will have missed the last train home. He has been working, and is now expected to get home. Is that the sort of commute that most people would think of as reasonable? I think not.

One point bears repeating. MPs do not work thirty-six or even forty-five hour weeks, not if they're doing it properly. If you expect them to be available during office hours, and I presume that you do, it's potentially more like a fifty hour week, plus weekends. So, if you expect MPs to commute, is it not fair that they get the downtime to recover too?

But no, you expect them to meet their constituents, to attend village fetes. You expect them to be seen around the constituency, campaigning, holding surgeries. There are limits and, if people are pushed too hard, and the job made almost entirely unattractive, many of the people that you would actually like to see representing you will take one look and say, "No, I think that I'll have a life instead."

So, fair enough, make MPs commute for up to an hour. In return, Parliament opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. Organise it so that there can be proper scrutiny, or leave that to a reformed professional House of Lords, as you will, but crucifying those who represent us on a cross made of our own anger and prejudices will only lead to worse government by an increasingly remote group of professional administrators.