Moonlighting MPs

The Mail on Sunday is not my cup of tea for news, politics or analysis - but you've got to hand it to the newspaper - it does come up with some good stories that seem to bay the rest of the media by.

Today's paper highlights a high-flying row involving Gordon Brown - the former Prime Minister and still Labour MP for Fife - and a dispute about business class seats on a British Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to London.

Gordon Brown was returning from a speaking engagement in Abu Dhabi - where he gave a lecture to New York University students.

The university has a campus in Abu Dhabi and has previously appointed the former Labour leader to a £70,000 a year post - as a 'distinguished global leader in residence'.

The full story can be read in the Mail on Sunday or online at: www.dailymail.co.uk

Essentially the paper reports that some passengers were angry at being 'bumped' from business class to make way for Gordon Brown and his entourage - who required six of the £3,000 per head seats.

During the first hour-long leg of the flight from Oman to Abu Dhabi, the displaced passengers stared resentfully at the six empty seats in Business Class - known as Club World by British Airways, the paper reports.

At Abu Dhabi they were livid to see Gordon Brown board the plane with his team and take up 'their' seats - apparently.

British Airways issued a statement after the incident and a spokeswoman for the airline said Mr Brown's arrival on the flight was a coincidence - and he had been unfairly blamed by the mutinous passengers.

But this misses the real point - of course - which is:

How can MPs justify a full-time public salary - if they spend so much time away from their day job?