We're in the money

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.