Terrific article in today's Guardian, and one which scoured from me any vestiges of sympathy for complaining MPs. Written by Heather Brooke, who is largely respsonsible for the sea of ordure currently engulfing Westminster MPs. The Daily Telegraphy may have got the story (sometimes the chequebook is the only thing that works) but it was Brooke what set the whole process going with her FOI requests (persistently blocked by Speaker Michael Martin.

Yes, most of the MPs ARE clean, and much of the Telegraph coverage uses guilt by association (he’s a claims crook and an MP; this guy’s also an MP and he claimed for this; ergo he’s also a crook). I can also accept that the claims system is an opaque mess not even understood by some of the MPs, so some of them WILL have made genuine mistakes and misjudgements (though Elliott Morley’s craven mea ex culpa of ‘it’s a really complicated system guv, so I didn’t know you couldn’t claim for mortgages that don’t exist’ is pushing it a bit). But this has been rumbling for years - how many of those who are now complaining were demanding more transparency when they started getting prodded through ROI requests.

Hello to everyone who has been following my posts on the Walletwatcher website for the past year. The site is now no more, much to the chagrin of myself, my bank manager and several hundred daily visitors. I, like so many of you out there, have been on the receiving end of the recession ... credit crunched. But, in the great tradition of turning negatives into positives, what better place from which to start dispensing personal finance thoughts, education and related trivia. I'll be posting on a daily basis on things which catch my eye in the news, and from next week we'll be starting a series of 'made easy' features, in which I'll attempt an idiot's guide to negative equity, deleveraging, deflation, pound/cost averaging, you name it, in 300 words or less ... We'll see how it goes. There will also be a weekly podcast for all of you who are visually impaired, who love the sound of my voice, or are simply too lazy to read the stuff. See you tomorrow.