SO THAT`S OK THEN.....

No wonder they look happy. News today that Speaker Martin`s wife has been let off the hook following the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner`s ruling about some of her expenses. Mrs. Martin racked up a bill of £4,000 of taxpayers` money in taxi fares as she swanned around London on shopping trips allegedly for official functions.

The Commissioner, John Lyons, has come to the conclusion that this expenditure was "reasonable" and did not break any rules. So that`s alright then. Isn`t it?

This is the same Mrs. Martin who incurred something like £50,000 in taxpayer-funded air fares in the last three years - £24,000 to-ing and fro-ing between London and her home in Glasgow and £25,000 on foreign trips `supporting her husband.` When these apparently "reasonable" and non-rule breaking expenses were reported a little earlier this year, a Commons spokesman said: "The burden on a Speaker's family can be great at times." Quite so.