BEWARE - DIVERSION AHEAD

So, Gordon Brown has written to the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life suggesting a far reaching inquiry into the whole business of MPs salaries and allowances. This comes, of course, on the back of the recent revelations that Transport Minister Tony McNulty has been claiming £60,000 of taxpayers` cash for a `second home` where his parents live just round the corner from his constituency office and just a few minutes away from McNumpty`s main home which he shares with his wife - who just happens to be the chief inspector of schools.

It all sounds just too familiar. Shades of the ongoing case of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the ongoing bizarre situation surrounding the Balls-Cooper axis, who claim that their main home is in London, despite living in the family home in Yorkshire with their two children.

So, should we take heart from Gordon Brown`s announcement and should we therefore cultivate the notion that these flagrant excesses might be brought to an end any time soon? Hardly. For Brown himself is not slow to submit claims for expenses such as the odd telephone call and his subscription to Sky tv. And in any event, it seems that his `far reaching inquiry` is going to be a long drawn out affair and not expected to report until after the next election.

The whole business has yet again been kicked into the long grass by the classic tactic of an inquiry being announced which is nothing more than a diversion from the real problem and, in the process, giving breathing space to McNumpty, to our Second Home Secretary, Balls and Cooper and doubtless countless other MPs who continue to milk the taxpayers in the worst economic times for decades but whose shenanagins have yet to be revealed. In all honesty, you couldn`t make it up.