Whilst canvassing for the coming elections I have met people who are considering voting UKIP because they aren’t tainted by the current MP expenses scandals. Unfortunately this is not true and they are as bad if not worse than the rest.

UKIP led the way in fiddles when ex UKIP MEP Ashley Mote was jailed for six months for benefit fraud. Now comes the news that UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been boasting to European newspapers about claiming £2 million pounds from the taxpayer (that’s you and me) and using the money to fund his party.

Full details are reported in today’s Observer and can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/24/mps-expenses-ukip-nigel-farage

I leave readers to make their own minds up as to whether UKIP can be trusted with your votes. What is really needed is a clean up of the whole sad system – parliament which meets the needs of the people not the greed of politicians playing the system for their own benefit – something the Liberal Democrats have been advocating for years.