Chameleon Magazine

 💷📑David Lammy claiming nearly £7,000 in expenses for personal tax returns might be technically within the old rules — but it absolutely stinks of the culture voters are sick to death of. Eleven separate claims. Eleven times the public picked up the bill. And only now, after a ban comes into force, are we told this practice isn’t acceptable.

Funny how standards always arrive after the money’s gone.

🧾 Rules for Them, Receipts for Us

Let’s be clear: this isn’t about legality — it’s about ethics.

Millions of ordinary people pay their own accountants. They don’t get to invoice taxpayers for help navigating HMRC. They don’t get a parliamentary expenses form to soften the blow.

Yet here we are again, watching senior politicians quietly outsource their personal financial admin to the public purse, then act surprised when people roll their eyes and mutter about double standards.

Calling this “within the rules” misses the point entirely. The real question is:

why were these rules ever allowed in the first place?

If you earn a six-figure salary, have access to advisers, and talk endlessly about “fairness” and “responsibility”, why exactly should taxpayers be funding your tax returns? 🤔

🏛️ The Expense Culture That Never Dies

The ban coming into force this year tells us everything we need to know. The system itself eventually admitted this was indefensible. But as usual, the clean-up happens after years of quiet claims, shrugged shoulders, and “nothing to see here” briefings.

This isn’t a Lammy-only problem. It’s a Westminster problem — a mindset where public money is treated as elastic, and accountability is something that happens to other people.

Every time this happens, politicians wonder why trust keeps collapsing. Then they commission another report about “engagement” and “disillusionment” instead of looking in the mirror. 🪞

🔥 Challenges 🔥

Here’s the challenge for readers:

If this had been a council worker, a nurse, or a teacher claiming thousands for personal admin, would it have lasted eleven claims? Or eleven minutes?

Is this just another case of one rule for the governed and another for the governing?

Say it properly in the blog comments, not just in passing anger. 💬🔥

👇 Like it. Share it. Hold them to account.

The sharpest comments will be featured in the next issue of the magazine. 📰✍️