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   Expenses row had 'modest impact' on MPs' reputations
Public views on MPs and Parliament have not been significantly damaged as a result of the expenses scandal, a report published today suggests. But MPs should not take too much heart from the findings, as the figures appear to merely reflect their existing unpopularity. A report published by the Hansard Society found that just 26 per cent of voters said they trust politicians generally - down just one point from the 27 per cent recorded in 2004. And those saying they distrusted politicians rose by three points over the same period from 70 per cent to 73 per cent. Public dissatisfaction with how MPs in general do their jobs had risen eight points since 2004, from 36 per cent to 44 per cent. But asked about their own constituency MPs, just 16 per cent said they were dissatisfied, with 38 per cent declaring themselves satisfied. While seven in ten people said they had discussed the parliamentary expenses scandal with their family and friends, three in ten did not view this as discussing politics. Rather they viewed it in a similar way to discussing the private lives of celebrities. The society’s annual Audit of Political Engagement survey also revealed that only 19 per cent of those questioned ranked Parliament among the top three most influential political institutions. Writing in this weeks House magazine, the director of the Society’s Parliament and government programme Ruth Fox said: “Of eight institutions – the media, local councils, business, the civil service, the European Union, the Westminster Parliament, the prime minister and the cabinet – Parliament ranks sixth in terms of having the greatest impact.” “This suggests that while the events of the last few years, particularly the expenses scandal, have had a modest impact on the proportion of the public dissatisfied with Parliament as an institution, there may have been a bigger change in the relevance Parliament is seen to have on people’s lives, at least in relation to other institutions.” Source: ePolitix.com Copyright Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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