Oh my goodness! The self-serving out-of-touch MPs are at it again and completely ignoring the attitudes of those poor suckers who pay for them, writes blogger Charlie Cashdan.

Despite public outcry they have voted to keep the controversial ‘John Lewis List’, an expenses system allowing them to claim public money to pay for luxury items to furnish their London homes.

They have also rejected calls for independent auditing of their allowances.

To my mind, this is just arrogance and a bit of an insult to the people who pay for them.  The British public have made it perfectly clear how we feel about MP’s expenses but our views have been completely ignored.  No wonder there is so much voter apathy in this country when politicians seem to exist on a completely different world to the rest of us and don’t respond to our views.

They have accepted a below inflation pay increase bringing their basic salary to £62,588 and think this makes them appear responsive to the current economic climate but how can they possibly argue that when their perks exceed anything the average professional could ever hope to receive?

All that first class unlimited travel, second homes and food allowance, fancy hotels, communications allowance, staff allowance and resettlement allowance makes our MPs utterly out-of-touch with the average experiences of those they are meant to serve.  With expenses included, they earn in excess of £100,000 each and live a pretty fantastic life of privilege as far as I can see.

I feel like this latest decision is a big slap in the face to all us hard-working folk struggling in the grip of a global recession.  They should be ashamed.

Agree with Charlie? Post your comments below.