Mr and Mrs Expenses
The book I am currently reading - No Expenses Spared - is a veritable treasure trove of information.
Page after page of shocking examples highlight the completely venal behaviour of Westminster MPs - over their expenses claims.
The laugh being that such expenses were only meant to be claimed in the first place - if they were necessary to help MPs in the course of their parliamentary duties.
Here's one such case which I was aware of previously - but still retains its jaw dropping quality:
"One of the most notorious examples involved Alan and Ann Keen, husband and wife Labour MPs who represented next door constituencies in west London and had a home in Brentford, just 9 miles from Parliament.
Despite living closer to work than thousands, if not millions, of Londoners, the Keens had for years been claiming his'n'hers second homes allowances to fund the cost of a swish serviced apartment on the banks of the Tames. The couple were dubbed 'Mr and Mrs Expenses' by one newspaper, and the name stuck."
Now I haven't yet come across the price of this fancy pad - which was being bought and maintained all at taxpayers expense - but I seem to recall that it was worth well over £400,000.
Yet the couple already had a family home in Brentford - within easy commuting distance of the House of Commons.
And like other MPs - Mr and Mrs Expenses were entitled to hold onto the capital gain from the property - which must have increased in value by many tens of thousands of pounds.
Despite the fact that it was effectively being bought, maintained - and no doubt furnished - with public money.
Now what I don't get is the sense of entitlement these people had - while claiming to stand for the values of the Labour party.
No Expense Spared was first published in 2009 - before the date of the last general election in May 2010.
The best quote so far is the one on the back cover from David Cameron - now Prime Minister - which says:
"What the Daily Telegraph did - the simple act of providing information to the public - has triggered the biggest shake-up in our political system for years."
Very true - but there' still a long way to go and lots more to do - locally as well as nationally.
