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COMMENT OF THE DAY
"This is not a party issue - all MPs are up to their noses in it with perhaps 1 or 3 notable exceptions. You know this is so simple to sort out. Pay MPs a proper wage, taxed at the standard rate (personally I’d make it £150,001 - ha!) and provide 646 flats in central London for MPs to stay in, free of charge, during their tenure. That’s it - everything else MPs incur would be paid for from their salary. To anticipate the travel issue I’d simply say, no-one asked a prospective candidate to seek office (say) 300 miles from Westminster - you pay your own cost of getting to work like the rest of us.
But you know what the most galling thing is? It’s MPs saying “I didn’t break any rules” - that's absolutely right - but they know what they've been indulging in is morally wrong because its radically different to the rules that we, the people repesented, have to follow. MPs need to hold their hands up, say sorry and sort it out!"
Andrew Burge, on MPs' expenses: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
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A Supporter says now is Labour's chance to enshrine disability rights in law.
Charlie Jones says Britain is not lost and does not need saving - and certainly not by Cameron!
Good news in Hartlepool as Labour holds a council seat and the Tories come fifth.
Diplomat Brian Barder on why the national media is collectively sneering at our elected officials.
Former Danish PM Rasmussen on why we must put social justice at the centre of the European agenda.
FINALLIST
Tory Head of Policy Oliver Letwin's £2,000 claim for a damaged tennis court - and the other new revelations.
The Guardian has the rest of the news on a "bad day for the Conservative Party".
Gordon Brown's sister-in-law explains his cleaning expenses.
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The Sun launches its Reform Now campaign on Parliamentary expenses.
Jackie Ashley says it's time for Labour to look to Ed Miliband or Alan Johnson for the leadership.
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Jenni Russell on how to shake up gender inequality.
As President Obama plans a surge for peace in the Middle East, King Abdullah says this could be the last chance.
Watch President Obama's White House Correspondents' speech - very funny.
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