SHREDS OF EVIDENCE...

The news that the Statutory Instrument which would have exempted Members of Parliament from the requirement for them to have published, details of their expenses claimed over the past four years, has been withdrawn, is to be welcomed and applauded. I was gearing myself up for a rant today about the fact that MPs had voted to exempt themselves but, in a dramatic climb-down yesterday lunchtime, the measure to have been introduced to Parliament, was buried.

At last it seems that not only has common sense prevailed but also that our MPs have decided that, after all, even they should not go against the rulings of the High Court and that they should stop spending taxpayers` money on trying to prevent those same taxpayers from finding out what their money has been spent on.

Now, at the risk of allowing my innate cynicism to come to the fore, I suspect there may be a small number of MPs who are now nervous about having to reveal details of their expenses . So I imagine it is just possible that there might be an outbreak of small fires in certain offices or, more probably, a run on shredders in the stationery shops around Westminster. I suggest those MPs who may be concerned, get together and hire the kind of heavy duty, high capacity mobile shredder pictured above. It will save a lot of time, add to the recycling targets and improve their carbon footprints. Just as long as they don`t charge the hiring fee to the taxpayers - we`ll need to see the receipt, of course. And so the madness goes on.