SE23 Forum

I got a little bored with the expenses within a few minutes of hearing about it. It kinda seemed like one of those things that governments do to keep us entertained while something BIG is going on elsewhere. A simple distraction, if you like.

I thought that the real crime is the Whitehall back-office person/s who sold the initial data to The Telegraph. It wasn't for them to sell. And they brokered the deal using Henry Gewanter, a UK-based US PR consultant brought in to help get the data to the media.

Has there been any fuss over this? I haven't heard much of a peep apart from on Newsnight.

Gewanter (at least I think it was him) was interviewed on the Today programme this morning. He was asked whether money had changed hands and rather sidestepped the question by answering that nobody involved had "done it for money".

Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean they weren't paid all the same! I don't know if that was followed up as I had to head out the door to work!

That's quite a nifty sidestep. I'm going to have to remember that for when I want to dance a little sidestep.

Personally I feel the Telegraph did us all a favour. We would never have known half of what had been going on. Now at least there is a chance of reform. I read today that MP's may face a custodial sentence for any further false or inappropriate claims in future so hopefully things will be handled more prudently from now on.