Trough

The Gorse Fox mentioned it a couple of days back, but it seems to have reached the news media, finally. The Telegraph observes 

MPs' expenses will be made exempt from Freedom of Information laws, prompting claims that Commons' authorities are trying to keep secret the full scale of their claims

and claim that that the announcement was an attempt to bury the news on the day that Heathrow's 3rd runaway was announced. It went on: 

"Chief constables, local authority chief executives, senior BBC executives and others have to release their individual expenses claims, and that should be the case for MPs too."

The Times also picks up the cudgel and observes:

MPs threw out tougher rules in July last year when the vast majority of Members – 146 of the 172 – who voted to keep the allowance, described as the “John Lewis list”, were Labour, including 33 ministers.

Mmmm, the Gorse Fox wonders what that tells you about our egalitarian, socialist overlords.

Finally, Peter Oborne in the Mail has his say in a paragraph headed ".... and talking of people feathering their nests", but before dealing with the FOI controversy he adds:

On Monday, we learned that - at a time when most people's pension funds are collapsing and government ministers refuse to compensate the victims of the Equitable Life scandal - MPs have poured in a further £2.2 million of taxpayers' money to shore up their pension scheme.

And people wonder why some politicians are held in such low esteem