Where there's muck...

"More British MPs are embarrassed by revelations over their expense claimsHORSE manure. Swimming-pool maintenance. Light bulbs. Those are some of the items that British MPs have charged to the taxpayer under Parliament’s now-discredited expenses system. Probably the worst abuses involve “flipping”—that is, changing the property designated as an MP’s second home, thus allowing him to be reimbursed for improvements made to more than one residence. (British MPs may claim for the upkeep of a second home as they discharge their dual responsibilities at Westminster and in their constituencies.) Some of them tarted up their homes at public expense shortly before selling them for personal profit; a few seemingly identified a property as their second home for expenses purposes, but as their main residence when they sold it (thus avoiding capital-gains tax). The culprits include senior ministers and spokesmen for the opposition Conservatives as well as obscure backbenchers. The reputation of Parliament is at a desperately low ebb. ..." (2009-5-12)

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