MP's Expenses (again) and Fairness

One word keeps popping into my head over the MP’s expenses scandal: fairness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting their treatment has been unfair but because of the way some of them are being disciplined (or asked to pay money back) and others aren’t, it does seem that the experts called in to sort out the sorry saga are only making it worse.
I have no sympathy for all those who got on the gravy train and rode is as hard and fast as they could. But I do feel that when (some) people acted in good faith within the rules and checked again and again that their arrangements were approved, then it is hard to punish them retrospectively.
However, it’s also scandalous that some MP’s appear to be going to get away with huge cons – as in avoidance of capital gains tax, flipping homes, and, it seems, acquiring additional homes that they get to keep at our expense.
So I would just put in a simple word for fairness. All should be treated equally. If retrospective payments are to be required of the few, they should also be of the many. If some people are being required to pay back a few thousand pounds, how does that make it right that others are getting away with profiteering on a much bigger scale?
It’s all a big muddle at the moment, but one think I’ve learned over years of counselling is that unfairness can be the cause of huge turmoil.
Young people, for instance, (and this applies to the tiny ones as well as the troubled teens) can be deeply affected by situations they deem unfair. If they’re told off for something they know is not their fault, or if they’re misunderstood or misrepresented, or not listened to, they can develop a deep sense of injustice. If this happens often, they begin to feel the whole world is against them, and resentment can fester. More often than not, this leads to them acting out or playing up, simply because they’ve learned this is what’s expected of them (even when they’ve not been guilty) so they just conform to other peoples’ expectations of them. This, obviously then leads to more rows, more shouting and on to more bad behaviour.
It’s all so obvious really, isn’t it?
But it seems we need constant reminding that if we want people to perform to their best, they need to feel they’re treated fairly.
I dare say this whole expenses fiasco could have been avoided if only the MP’s had realised long ago that we the public would not have deemed many/most of their expense allowances fair.