So, the open government promised by Tony Blair all those years ago is upon us, with MPs’ expenses being published this week in full. Apart from the bits you can’t read, like addresses, amounts, goods and services, stuff like that. Indeed, with various parts of the expenses redacted, we the people (and employers of the 646) would not have found out about the “flipping” of second homes done by Hazel Blears, Alistair Darling, Geoff Hoon, et al.
The Telegraph has done a tremendous public service in publishing the full, unredacted set of expenses and I am pleased to see thieving gits resigning and paying money back. I’d be happier if most of the MPs were also had up on charges of fraud, such as the claims made on a non-existent mortgage by Elliot Morley (Lab), or by MPs avoiding capital gains tax. At least HMRC have launched an open-ended investigation into ax avoidance by MPs…
Here’s some good links to what’s going on today with the expenses:
- Blackout by the Telegraph, the paper that started it all
- Rolling blog post on the more interesting revelations by The Taxpayers’ Alliance
- The Point of No Return at the Spectator’s Coffee House
- And a “bunch of blankers” (almost right) from (ugh) The Sun
Happy reading, but do remember that not all MPs are on the fiddle…
