Gordon Brown recently hailed in a new era of "Open Government". And, ladies and gentleman, here is the proof.

Seriously, is there anybody that still has any sort of faith left in British Politics?

I laughed so hard when I saw this. It single-handedly demolished any lingering hope that I had for the system, any belief that one day I might participate in the act of voting, that as if any of it mattered.

Oh, and just for a bit of perspective, a friend of mine recently got served a summons for a Court Hearing over the non-payment of council tax. He missed two months of payments. He lost his job in the recession and, until this year, had voted Labour all his life.

Oh, and here is the link with a few more examples:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/gallery/2009/jun/18/mps-expenses-houseofcommons?picture=349037860

I took the opportunity to download the PDFs of the expenses of my local MP.

I have to say in general most of the stuff he claimed for is office stuff, for running his constituency office. All well and good, but why, when he lives an hour from London by train, does he get his mortgage paid? I don't even think he has a second home?

The other stuff is printing. Fair enough for leaflets and so on, but business cards? Aren't these supplied from a central source in London? Nope. He gets them printed down the road from where I live. I suppose you could argue it's helping local businesses by keeping them in work, but why are they a claimable expense?

The redacted areas, apparently, cover anything likely to be a security or privacy issue. I do think Mr G Brown's council tax one is a bit heavy-handed, though. Oh, and why does he feel the need to get his employers to pay for his Sky telly?

There was someone on from the Telegraph on Sky News this morning saying they are going to publish the whole lot in a supplement.

MORE!





ACA file = http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/graham-brady/Graham_Brady_0506_ACA.pdf

Right - I’m going to be looking for mine. He’s a Tory, so there should be some curios there.

This is the thin end of the wedge.

THIS is British politics.