I have been teaching on a leadership course this week, plus I have worked on another programme which prepares NHS staff for working at executive level. The thing about these courses is that while you observe the actions and behaviours of others you learn so much about your self. It is really easy to get caught up in the rat race of work, wherever it is and, head down not to notice the things that are important in life, or how the things you might do or say affect others.

Like pretty much everyone in this country I am pretty disturbed about the whole MP expenses scandal. I am not entirely surprised by the idea that people who can claim for expenses associated with having to say live in two different places, do a demanding job, employ staff or entertain people, might actually stretch things a bit. What I am surprised about is some of the things you can claim for and what is more, that there seem to have been no proper checks on the way this is done.

Claiming travel and other expenses as I do often finds me not quite being able to remember what I spent, when I travelled or parked (sometimes the receipt gets lost) and I would imagine that over the years the NHS has done better out of me than I have out of it. We are of course however talking of much smaller amounts of work, plus my moral values tell me that in the grand sceme of things a £3.00 car parking bill is not worth losing sleep over. What about claiming mortgage payments back as an expense and then suddenly remembering you have paid that mortgage off and you have just been supplementing your income? I am not sure I can trust this kind of person, I am not sure he has the personal value set appropriate for public office and what is more it is down right dishonest.

People working in the NHS have at times lost their jobs for misclaiming their travel and unsocial hour working expenses, quite rightly so. What though do you do with people like this, and how does the system of politics rebuild the trust of people like me.

My son has just turned 18. In a couple of weeks he can vote for the very first time. These elections are pretty small fry, though I would say important for local and european elections. Not surprisingly he is taking some notice in the whole scandal. His response right now is that the main parties are not for him right now and for the moment he might choose Green. I would say this is fine, but what if he leant more towards a right wing approach and chose instead BNP? Where on earth might that lead us?

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