MPs expenses - return of the Tories

So having put the Labour cabinet through the ringer it's time for the Conservative shadow cabinet. Nice that we can't point a finger of bias at the Telegraph, even more so that they allowed the moral outrage to build up against Labour before point out the Conservatives were doing exactly the same thing.

Most of the discussion is about second home 'flipping' - buy a house and claim the money for doing so, do it up and claim the money for doing so; then either buy a new one and sell the old one or switch the 'second home' to your other place so as to do that one up.

However the true lead story of the Telegraph should be this one about Kelvin Hopkins total additional cost allowance for 2004-05: £296. The biggest shocker being the fact that he lives in the same street as another MP who has claimed nearly £14k in the same year in order to run a second home whereas Mr Hopkins just takes the train in.

He also delivers the quote that should be read out at Parliament to all those looking to blame the 'system'

"The rules are clearly nonsense but even if they are nonsense, they shouldn’t be abused."

Full details of Mr Hopkins expenses as well as other MPs can be found at They Work for You. Ranked 585th out of 645 for 07/08

Just to put the entire second home claim etc. into context my local MP who lives (not so obviously) in Worcestershire and thus has to travel a lot further than Luton is listed 07/08 as 640th out of 645 for expense claims; incidentally he's not a member of one of the main parties.

[Additional - You know it would be interesting to plot on a map expense claims by constituency to see if any form of pattern emerges]