AS with the majority of tax payers in this country I think that some of our MPs have been acting not for us but for personal gain. How many people s income tax on the minimum wage of �5.73 working a 40-hour week did it take to pay Jim Paice s expenses? A

AS with the majority of tax payers in this country I think that some of our MPs have been acting not for us but for personal gain. How many people's income tax on the minimum wage of �5.73 working a 40-hour week did it take to pay Jim Paice's expenses? A vacuum cleaner, a dishwasher, a microwave, new windows? All at our expense.

I run a local business, Octagon Studios Performing Arts Centre. I met Mr Paice when he was keen to be elected a few years back. He visited the studios canvassing for support. He asked if there was anything I wanted to discuss with him. There was. Small Business Rate Relief, which, strangely has nothing to do with the size of the business, but the space it takes up. He promised to bring it up in Parliament should he get re-elected - he got re-elected. It seems furnishing a second home using our money were high on the agenda as I didn't hear anything from him.

While you feel justified in claiming �23,080.00 in taxpayer's donations to your income Mr Paice give a thought to all those people who like my husband, a builder by trade, find themselves out of work due in the main, to the total incompetence of the way this country has been run, who after 40 years of paying tax and National Insurance are not even 'eligible' to claim any unemployment benefit whatsoever because we have saved a small amount for our retirement (actually �7,000.00) less than Mr Paice's expenses for one year.

The country will hold all MPs to account at the next election. I suggest no second homes allowance - let us allocate them a studio flat in a London tower block. They could then pay for the accommodation out of their salaries like the rest of us have to. Let us hope that these elected politicians are feeling the wrath of the British public and realise that we have put them there to do a job, a job they assured us they could do. Isn't it time they took a good, long look at the state they have got this country in and they should now work together to put things right. There must still be at least some MPs who are capable of running the country.

KATHERINE MARSHALL

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