The more or less unanimous (not to say orchestrated) reaction from MPs caught, let's say, optimising the expenses/allowances system they themselves devised - 'we haven't broken any rules' - reminds me of one of Alexei Sayles' old jokes:
'People say to me: Alexei, why do you drink so much? I reply: because I can afford to.'
I expect the cost of horse manure to soar over coming days. A run on the stuff is likely to arise due to certain MPs needing to build up their stocks to enable a receipt to be obtained for expense reclamation purposes before the rules are forever changed.
ReplyDeleteOther commodities may be similarly affected.
A story doing the rounds from Michael Gove's journalistic days:
ReplyDeleteOne day Gove's boss is said to have told him he wanted a chat about his expenses. The boss assured Gove he was not casting aspersions on anything, but was merely curious... perhaps he'd dated something wrongly. One of the receipts was for lunch with Ken Clarke.
Gove's boss said he thought that was very interesting, as on the day of this lunch, he himself had lunch with Ken Clarke.
Without missing a beat quick-witted Gove looked up and replied, "The greedy bastard... two lunches!"