Plugs, caravans, cable TV and second homes
Westminster is mesmerised by the never-ending flood of stories about MPs expenses, which has put even the on the backburner.
Voters will be agog at the scale of the money involved. but on top of that they are claiming on average £144,000 in various expenses, which takes their annual remuneration, excluding generous pension provisions, . Even junior ministers can expect to be north of £250,000.
It is quite clear that many MPs are using their expenses to finance their chosen lifestyles, using taxpayers' money to buy things -- from sink plugs to caravans to cable TV packages to -- that the rest of us have to pay for out of our after-tax, hard-earned income (the fact that the £144,000 is tax free makes it even more valuable).
Public wrath is now at fever pitch and I cannot remember a time (even in the worst days of the dying ) when politicians have been held in more public contempt. Yet they are like rabbits stuck in the headlights, unable to reform an absurd expenses system wide open to abuse and reduced to pathetic excuses ("it's within the rules" and (priceless, this one) "I was told to go for it and treat it like extra salary") which only increase public anger further.
This morning the politicians are trying to make disclosure the issue: to their immense embarrassment.
I suspect the : it's our moment and we have every right to know exactly how they spend it.
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