MP’s Expenses
1. In this morning’s Torah reading – Korach – Moshe Rabbeinu protests, on learning of rebellion against his authority, that he has never so much as used a single donkey belonging to the people.
2. Rashi explains this apparently strange choice of example as referring to a particular journey undertaken by Moshe and his family for the benefit of the community: it would have been entirely reasonable for Moshe to have paid for the journey from communal funds, but he paid for it entirely himself.
3. According to Moshe, therefore, it seems that to have a reasonable expectation of unimpeachable integrity in public leadership it is necessary to show that one has not applied communal funds for personal benefit of any kind, or made any personal gain from ones position.
4. It is no longer feasible or appropriate, as it was not so long ago, for our politicians to be drawn only from the ranks of those who can afford to serve without any financial compensation for the time devoted to public service. But the present Parliamentary and public discussions about MP’s expenses show that the essential considerations have not changed since Biblical times: the more that MP’s can show that they have minimised their application of public funds to private purposes, the greater will be their integrity and the greater will be the consequent respect and loyalty that their public service commands.
