Comments on: Worst expenses claimants have safer seats

By: Lies, damned lies and statistics on MP expenses | Letters From A Tory

Lies, damned lies and statistics on MP expenses | Letters From A Tory — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:18:40 +0000

[...] read your joint blogpost last week on Mark Reckons and Left Foot Forward about whether the MPs with the safest seats are the worst expenses claimants with some interest. [...]

By: Stephen A

Stephen A — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:43:48 +0000

As a statistician, I have to say that based on an initial glance at the data, I’d suspect these results are due to chance. Fitting a simple model in which we try to explain expenses by size of majority and by party, there’s no evidence to support a conclusion that size of majority has any explanatory effect.

It’s an interesting theory but I’m afraid the statistics just don’t support it.

By: Jdey

Jdey — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:42:49 +0000

RT @Progressonline: MPs: worst expenses claimants have safer seats. See LFF story with data compiled by Progress http://bit.ly/dsNRQH

By: David Bouvier

David Bouvier — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:04:08 +0000

Interesting attempt at analysis, but this kind of thing needs careful review.
For example, MPs with safe seats are likely to have had longer tenures in parliament (fewer electoral mishaps to interrupt their career), and using the last general election results rather than the next, are presumably more likley to be Labour. Some of this would be spurious correlation and some might be causative.

Personally I would imagine that both tenure and a sense of immunity from public opinion would be factors likely to encourage abuse.

As for suggesting it is a FPTP problem remember that the abiding joy of FPTP is the we the electorate can “kick the bastard out” on a personal level – which is why so many MPs are running for the hills this time around. If you want to see long tenure and immunity from public anger then nothing compares to party list systems (be it top-up votes or a fully fledged).

By: Fab 5: Friday 5 February 2010 | The Young Fabians Blog

Fab 5: Friday 5 February 2010 | The Young Fabians Blog — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:49:21 +0000

[...] Thomson and Will Straw blog at Left Foot Forward about the expenses scandal. They find that the worst offenders tended to be those in the safest seats. (Ed – it’d [...]

By: MissTJD

MissTJD — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:06:23 +0000

RT @leftfootfwd: Worst expenses claimants have safer seats: http://is.gd/7Kqvb – The higher an MP's majority, the greater their propensity t

By: Simon

Simon — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:40:37 +0000

Do you know, I have been labouring under a misapprehension all my life. I always thought that labour was on the side of the common man. Now I can see that they are just self serving, greedy bastards.

By: Will Lashley

Will Lashley — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:58:22 +0000

RT @Progressonline: MPs: worst expenses claimants have safer seats. See LFF story with data compiled by Progress http://bit.ly/dsNRQH

By: NOTORYUS

NOTORYUS — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:57:35 +0000

RT @Progressonline: MPs: worst expenses claimants have safer seats. See LFF story with data compiled by Progress http://bit.ly/dsNRQH

By: Jessica Asato

Jessica Asato — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:52:28 +0000

RT @Progressonline: MPs: worst expenses claimants have safer seats. See LFF story with data compiled by Progress http://bit.ly/dsNRQH