I've got the tomatoes, who's first in the stocks!

Paris, cause she also has loads of money to spend that she didn't work for.

... the beginnings of some accountability. I dread to think what's gonna come out in the wash, the way they've been fighting to keep it all secret.

People are gonna be up in arms...

thats all i can say, shame its a), took so damn long, and b), now cost us even more, shame most people work for a living and get no expenses, think i'll become an MP, after all, i only need to be good at bullshit, spend money that doesnt belong to me on things it shouldnt be spent on, bring in new laws that nobody needs or wants, and be so fucking incompetent it begs belief!

..for The Sun and Daily Mirror articles. Will be fun to see Labour going down even more...as if they can more since Cheshire Cat became PM ;)

Now that Speaker Martin and his cronies have lost their legal battle, they should be required to reimburse the taxpayers out of their own salaries. This would also provide a valuable lesson to other MPs who think they can spend public money without being called to account.

...and return the money to the tax payer.

Gaol time in the Tower of London if they don't.

(For the American audience, Gaol is the correct spelling of Jail. Just so you know!)

HMRC (of lost DataBase fame) should simply tax @ 40% all claims NOT supported with a receipt.

The correct English spelling of 'Gaol' or the Americanizm of 'Jail'?

no no Sarah - Politicians are stupid wrongnesses, and should die in Gaol.

Actually that was an afterthought and if you really want you can delete it. The important comment is: Ahhhahahahahahahahaha - lets see how those theiving scum like it when we're poking our noses into their spending habits.

Comes from the French - and still used regularly as an alternative to 'prison' on TV news over there.

Nothing wrong with it!

Last I checked, this was an English paper and should therefore stick to Queen's English at all times (even if the locals don't understand it).

...

I think the Tower is too good for the thieving MPs, councilors and the rest of the scum that "represent us". They should all be made to live on the dole in some stinking council estate, instead - and banned from holding public office ever again.

@Sarah: Why aren't you in the pub yet?

How does one pronounce Gaol? wondered ever since I read Wind in the Willows. Is it like jail or is it like "ga-ol" or some weird French-type "gaoool"?

Cos she doesn't know either.

Its doesnt come from the frogs:

"Gaol is an early Modern English spelling for jail with the same pronunciation and meaning. Although jail is now more common, gaol is still the favoured spelling in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations, for example in Australia."

Quoting a popular online encyclopedia, and its not encarta

From the summary of the court case section 42:

"None of this is intended to suggest that the disclosure of an individual's private address under FOIA does not require justification. In the present case, however, there was a legitimate public interest well capable of providing such justification. Thus, for example, there is evidence which suggests that one MP claimed ACA for a property which did not exist, and yet further evidence may demonstrate that on occasions MPs claiming ACA were letting out the accommodation procured from the ACA allowance."

Intriguing it would appear that at least on MP is going to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

I cant wait :)

If "Gaol" is good enough for Oscar Wilde's poems it's fine by me. Mind you whilst I don't see it very often in everyday use, it is nice to see that some people stubbornly cling to proper usage of a language that, in my personal opinion, does not receive the respect it deserves.

Paris, because she didn't spend enough time in there.

Radio/television announcer on each conviction...

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!

Don't care if it only works in print.

....you will see all this info?

Next parliment, first order of business first act to be passed will be to make secret and exempt from FOI all MP's expenses. Probably passed by an overwelming majority from all parties.

Why don't they have to pay back this money or give the second houses back to the state when they get kicked out or resign?

Let's surcharge the crims who put in a duff estimate for the olympic swimming pool.

on how much the "authorities" are p^h^h^h^h frittering away taxpayers money each week (day)?

By my reckoning its over a quarter of a million quid in the last few days what with the costs of this doomed appeal and the farce of shooting the messenger in the Channel4 vs the Police/CPS debacle.

It IS about time the Tower of London was refurbished for use.

Funny how the politicians don't quote their favourite mantra when they're being investigated.

Incidentally, some of the old vagrancy acts refer to the big house as the House of Correction.

This is why nothing gets done!

The point is that some crooks^W politicians are taking the taxpayers for a ride and everybody starts quibbling about semantics.

Jail, gaol, pokey, slammer or whatever. I'd like my taxes back please and the rules changed. Also the thieving bastards^W^W elected politicians need to be named and shamed (and/or put in prison)

Gaol is not only the older spelling, but (unsurprisingly since Scots is an older language than english) is also the correct word in Scots too, not to mention Ulster Scots of course which is spoken in NI, another nation of the UK.

Since the Reg is a "British" paper, not as one poster stated, an "English" paper, then as two of the 4 nations have "gaol" as the correct word, then "jail" is but a piffling americanism that one country in the UK currently uses (although I'd make the point that there are Gaol's in Scotland, but I think all the nick's in Englandshire are called "Prison"). Therefore since the UK is a democratic nation, the Welsh use a welsh term, Scotland uses Gaol, NI uses Gaol and england use Prison, Gaol it is.

And whilst I would never dream to tell the Moderatrix her job, I note that she has a degree from Proffysgol Aberyswyth in English, not Scots, Ulster Scots, nor even Welsh, so may I humbly suggest she doesn't know of what she speaks.

No shocks there then. If he was willing to commit the lives of our soldiers, the lives of the Iraqi people and billions of pounds in tax payers money to an illegal war I'm sure he wouldn't have thought twice about abusing his expenses to pay for all sorts of things he shouldn't have.

We know all about convicts and gaol !

"Since the Reg is a "British" paper, not as one poster stated, an "English" paper... "

Depends what accuracy you're working to - to within about 10%, England *is* the UK.

10% of the population, providing 50% of the brains.

I know this is a really basic (dumb) question, but what is an "MP"?

Paris-cause I just don't, no shite

MP is an acronym meaning "Military-supported Parasite".