MP's Expenses Scandal: There's the Sweet Spot.

The scandal over the expenses British Members of Parliament (MP's) claim for doing their job has been a long running one. It first began back in January 2007 when a journalist used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request some of the documents relating to the expenses claims of a few MP's. The MP's did not like this one little bit and tried to argue that they were exempt from the FOIA leading to a year long legal battle. In May 2008 the High Court ruled that MP's were covered by the FOIA and ordered that the details of all MP's expenses must be made available to the public on request. With little choice the MP's decided that they would comply with the court's ruling but would need another full year to sanitise the documents by removing home addresses, bank details and details of suppliers. This was scheduled to happen in July 2009.

Then in May 2009 someone, presumably a civil servant, leaked an unsanitised version of the expenses data to the Daily Telegraph newspaper a publication so much part of the British Establishment that it is still outraged the latest uprising in Ceylon. Crucially the data they received contained personal information such as the home addresses of MP's which not only let people know who was claiming what but at what address they were claiming it for.

The Telegraph went public with this information on Friday May 8th with a story that focused on Labour MP's and their widespread practice of "flipping" where the address of the second home is frequently changed in order to maximise the amount that can be claimed under the second home allowance. The paper also published details of the sort of things the MP's had claimed back on expenses including the scurrilous accusation that immigration minister Phil Woolas (of Gurkha's fame) had used his allowance to buy himself a lot of women's clothing. That story ran for the entire weekend until Monday when, in the interests of political balance, the Telegraph decided to focus on the Conservative party. It turned out that the Conservatives had been up to exactly the same things as their Labour colleagues but being Tories they're claims were far more lavish including an MP who claimed for the maintenance of his swimming pool, another who claimed for having helipad built in his garden and one who billed the taxpayer for the cost of having his moat dredged. The Telegraph followed this up on Tuesday by concentrating on the Liberal Democrats who rather sweetly promised to repay the £18.44p they'd accidentally claimed for personal telephone calls. On Wednesday the paper didn't publish any further revelations leaving the day clear for political point scoring at Prime Minister's Question Time and acts of contrition from MP's of all parties who made it clear that although what they'd done was morally indefensible they'd not broken any rules.

Today (14/5) the Telegraph published probably the most shocking revelations about both Labour and Conservative MP's. These included Andrew MacKay, a Conservative, who was forced to resign his post after it was revealed he had his MP wife were both claiming for two separate homes. Most shocking though was the story of Elliot Morley, a Labour MP who allegedly claimed £16,000 in mortgage interest payments for a mortgage that didn't exist. This appears to be a criminal act of fraud and the matter has already been reported to the police by the Tax Payers Alliance a right-wing pressure group. That will be especially useful to the Conservative party because even if the police decide there is no case to answer the story of Mr Morley will still be making headlines long after the sins of Conservative MP's have been forgotten. This will help the "MP's Expenses Scandal" become the "Labour MP's Expenses Scandal" and help build an association in the public mind between the Labour party and sleaze. The Labour party also took a second body blow from the Establishment today when two Labour peers were found guilty, by a standards committee, of accepting money in exchange for helping to change British law. They each now face a six month suspension from the House of Lords something which hasn't happened since the 17th century.

On a related note the police in Luton today made a number of arrests over an incident in March when some less then convincing "Islamic Extremists" protested at a parade marking the return of British Soldiers from Afghanistan. Anyone would think the European elections are coming up in three weeks time.