In May last year, the High Court ruled that MPs must release details of their expenses under the Freedom of Information Act. It is now approaching the deadline for releasing those expenses and guess what?  Because MPs couldn’t lawfully hide their expenses, they are planning to change the law so that their expenses are exempt from

What is it about MEPs and their expenses? Why is it so hard for them to trust the public to see what they spend our money on? The Telegraph reported on Wednesday that both our Tory and Labour MEPs voted to keep their expenses secret, nobbling the legislation that would have forced the information into the open. I think that criticism in relation to expenses is often misdirected. Expenses themselv...

Expenses mole saw the lavish taxpayer expenses MPs were claiming and felt dutybound to blow the whistle.

Expenses mole saw the lavish taxpayer expenses MPs were claiming and felt dutybound to blow the whistle.

Will Rogers once said "Just be thankful you're not getting all the government you're paying for," and that's exactly why I fully support MPs dipping their noses into the proverbial trough, fiddling their expenses and indeed having their salaries and expenses increased relative to government spending. If they fiddle their expenses, they go out and spend it on a plasma TV or an adult ...

The redoubtable Tory MP Ann Widdecombe has just had a go at me in the Commons debate on expenses. She is particularly incensed that I talked about MP's additional payments "going into their bank accounts". Her point is that the money is re-imbursement for expenses incurred.1/ I never said it wasn't re-imbursement. But expenses are still money spent on your own account.2/ I have just checked with t...

I am not going to go into MPs expenses. Frankly, like most people I imagine, I am just simply bored with the whole thing. That said I think there is a need to look at the news that very suspiciously Tony Blair’s expenses have been shredded. Now it could very well just be a mistake. However I find it all too convenient that of all MPs Tony Blair has had his expenses shred. Westminster officia...

How hard can it be to sort out the expenses and salaries of Members of Parliament? When I listened to the headline news on the plans to reform expenses, I was broadly in support of them. After all, the number of poorly attended debates is a little shocking. Actually, if we could pay MPs according

To read some of the responses to my earlier comment on the MPs expenses scandal, you would think I had leapt to their defence. So let me repeat, the parliamentary expenses system is, indeed, corrupt and, like much else in our political system, needs to be reformed. My main point was that popular anger at the parlous state of our society in general is being displaced on to the issue of MPs expenses...

There has still been no explanation forthcoming as to why, amid all the other expenses details to have emerged from the Commons, only one named MP’s expenses seem to have been shredded. It has been reported that other MPs’ expenses...