First of all they attempted to avoid being tried in court. Spouting nonsense that because they were MPs they should be somehow be tried by their fellow crooks. But the best is kept for last.
After pleading guilty to dishonestly claiming Parliamentary expenses and getting a mere 18 moths in the pokey, which will mean he’ll be out in about half of that, former Labour MP David Chaytor has the nerve to appeal his sentence.
Chaytor, like the rest of his cronies in Parliament, was big on law and order and pandering to the “crime and punishment” agendas of the tabloids, while all the time he was stealing from the rest of us.
Using a defence of crass incompetence, most of them managed to get away with it. But, they never convinced the public that they were sorry for anything - other than getting caught. And of course many of them still can’t see that they’ve done much, if anything, wrong. When they did, they somehow thought that they shouldn’t be punished.
In a position of trust, they abused it. And if Chaytor thinks that his sentence is disproportionate to his crime then a kick up the arse with a size 10 reality boot is in order.
He might want to consider that had his sentence had been decided by public opinion the key would have been thrown away.
So he would be better to shut up, do his time and then just disappear from public view.
