June 18, 2009

So the MPs' "expenses" - what most people call "bills" - have finally been published.

All of them heavily redacted in the name of security and "privacy" - yes, it's that word again.

If these had been all we had access to - as against the unedited information in the hands of the Daily Telegraph - we WOULD NOT know about these:

* Andrew MacKay - From the official receipts it would not have been possible to know the Tory MP claimed for a second home without having a main constituency home.

* Margaret Moran - The Labour MP who claimed £22,000 for dry rot on her second home. The receipts do not show her second home was in Southampton -100 miles from her Luton constituency.

* Sir Peter Viggers - Tory MP who tried to claim £1,645 for a "duck island", the official receipts show no evidence of the unsuccessful claim.

* Hazel Blears - The former Labour minister claimed second home expenses for three different properties in a single year but the redacted receipts do not show this as addresses are blacked out.

So all that bollocks we've been hearing from Brown, Cameron and Clegg, about how they're best suited to clearing up a corrupt system that they invented and indulged in in the first place, is just that - absolute bollocks.

They've literally put out a press release rather than the raw information their paymasters - us - demand.

Heather Brookes, the (American) Freedom of Information campaigner who set this whole thing rolling, said today that the "security" argument had been "totally discredited" and told the BBC: "I can see that avoiding embarrassment has been the key motivating factor of what's been deleted."

Spot on.

Guy Fawkes, where are you now?

EDIT: In 22 years of journalism, I have never seen a story go on for so long (if we discount the madness of Diana).

That is testament to the thirst for the truth by the public, whetted by the sheer stubbornness of politicians to provide it, and bloody fine journalism.

On Friday, the Telegraph is unveiling it's coup d'tat - what your lords and masters in the Cabinet have been robbing off you.

And on Saturday, everything that wasn't revealed today will be in a magazine with the paper.

It is going to be electrifying - and I just can't wait.