MP's expenses; calculation not conviction

Once again the Prime Minister has put Party advantage and the desire to wrong foot his opponents ahead of the best interests of the country. His proposals for a daily allowance for MPs turning up to work (copied from the European Parliament), just will not do. They fail to deal with the issue of transparency and the reasonable expectation that MPs will only claim expenses they incur actually doing their job.

David Cameron said: "What we should do is get rid of the second home allowance and instead have a transparent parliamentary allowance where we say you only get money - and less money than is available at the moment - if you produce receipts for a very strictly controlled number of things. I want no more claiming for stamp duty or furniture or flat screen televisions or patio heaters. Let's deal with the abuses that way. And let's have a clear declaration from all MPs, this is where I live and this is why I require expenses to allow me to do my job."

Gordon Brown's proposals are all about wrong-footing the other parties and side-stepping the issue that a number of his Cabinet Ministers are the worse abusers of the current system. This is yet more calculation from this morally-bankrupt government. Whatever happened to doing the right thing?!