I can't bring myself to look at The Daily Telegraph (10 pages today!) but I did catch up with the row in the Sunday papers at the weekend. "Taxmen to probe MPs over profits from home sales" screams the headline in The Observer, and The Sunday Times equally scathing.
Am I alone in NOT being in the least surprised about the row about MPs expenses? Shocked certainly, but unsurprised. I recall being...uh ... entertained by a Conservative MP who will (seriously, this time) remain nameless, in his opulent flat in Dolphin Square in the late 1980s. I solemnly swear that there was only the one (albeit quite large) gin and tonic involved and a brief discussion about a regeneration project and nothing else. Honest guv! But it was a complete eye opener to me (then living in a tatty two up two down terrace in Canning Town) nonetheless. Even at that time, I thought to do the sums and worked out that four nights in a hotel would be infinitely cheaper than paying for this elegant apartment, but of course I made the assumption that the chap concerned (sadly no longer with us) had deployed private money alongside allowances.
