Pass the gravy

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It seems our MPs are not just on a gravy train but a whole Bisto-soaked transport system - no wonder there was a reluctance to release their expenses guidelines for second homes under a Freedom of Information request. The reason for wanting to keep it secret apparently, according to Andrew Walker, the Commons director of resources, was that it would encourage MPs to take advantage by claiming at the upper limit. Do we really appear that stupid Mr Walker? Or is it just that you think we are?

Anyone who has had anything approaching a proper job, i.e. nowhere near Whitehall, and has come within 100 yards of an expense form knows to the penny what can and cannot be claimed. So, unless MPs are a particularly stupid breed, they are probably already claiming at the upper limit for their second homes which, incidentally, we are also paying for along with their coffee machines, nests of tables, food mixers, £35 a square metre carpets and anything else they fancy.

And, just to make you really splutter into your beer before the price goes up, when you consider that the MEP's trough in Europe makes Westminster's freebies look like a budgie seed feeder, I hate to think what can be claimed there - not that we will ever find out, of course, as the EU prides itself on being just about as transparent as tar.