Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt suspended from Parliamentary Labour Party

This story is breaking on the BBC News site at the moment.

It follows the Channel 4 Dispatches programme earlier this evening.

Geoff Hoon's expense claims and journalists' ignorance of East Midlands geography

Jonathan Brown has a piece in the Independent today looking at MPs' expense claims. He visits Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Geoff Hoon's constituency and reports the experience of one constituent who had found it impossible to speak to him:

She said she had sought Mr Hoon's help once over a problem but was not impressed. "It was like talking to a brick wall. In fact, I never actually got to speak to him, it was his secretary. They tell you 'Phone CAB, phone the local authority'. It was a waste of time."

Brown goes on to say:

Mr Hoon has had none of these difficulties in making the system work for him, it seems. He presently commands a ministerial salary of £141,866 and has built an impressive property empire reportedy (sic.) worth £1.7m since joining the Government. His portfolio includes a Georgian townhouse in central London in addition to his sprawling £600,000 Derbyshire constituency home.

There is just one problem here. Kirkby-in-Ashfield and the whole Ashfield constituency are in Nottinghamshire, so how can Hoon have a "Derbyshire constituency home"?

According to an earlier Daily Mail report, Hoon lives in Derby. And Derby is 20 miles from Kirkby-in-Ashfield.

Hoon also owns a holiday home in the extraordinarily select Suffolk resort of Walberswick. Hence the wise words of Jason Zadrozny, who will be fighting Ashfield next time:

"When he is claiming for three properties, you hope at least one is in the constituency."

Quote of the Day refers to Geoff Hoon

The winner is Ashfield District Council leader Jason Zadrozny, who is due to stand against Geoff Hoon as LibDem candidate for Ashfield at the next election.

Quoted on the Nottingham Evening Post website complaining that "What really galls me ... is that his main home in Derby is still miles away from his constituency," he says:

"When he is claiming for three properties, you hope at least one is in the constituency."

Isn't the British constitution great?

Two short quotations from reports that went up on the Guardian website this afternoon.

On Heathrow:

Hoon insisted that a vote was not needed because the decision was "quasi-judicial". The government's decision was made in the interest of the country and not just Londoners, Hoon told McDonnell. "Heathrow is a national airport," he said.

On plans to exempt MPs' expense claims from freedom of information legislation:

Harriet Harman, the leader of the house, is to use a special parliamentary order that can become law within 24 hours after being debated by MPs and peers next week.

I get the impression that in Britain the government can short cut or dispense with democracy whenever it threatens to become inconvenient.

If MPs have any sense (and I grant you that a big if...) they will vote against this exemption of their expense claims. And Hoon is talking nonsense. Local councillors have a "quasi-judicial" role in planning matters, but they still take votes.

Geoff Hoon and Ruth Kelly to leave Cabinet

Newsnight has just claimed there is to be a Cabinet reshuffle next Friday.

They say that Geoff Hoon will be sent to Brussels as Britain's new European Commissioner and that Ruth Kelly has chosen to stand down.

The programme is tipping Liam Byrne and Jim Murphy as the ministers to be promoted.

Geoff Hoon is being interviewed at the moment and has certainly not contradicted any of this.

Australia has anti-Hoon legislation

Wikipedia tells us:

The term "Hoon" was first used in Australia at the turn of the 20th century where it referred to a man living off immoral earnings (i.e. a pimp).

The origin of its current usage is currently unknown but is widely believed to be a shortened form of "hooligan". In more recent times it has been used to describe any young male or female who drives in a manner which is anti-social towards the standards of modern day society.

The Hoon is such a social problem down under that anti-Hoon legislation has been introduced in Western Australia and Victoria and is planned in New South Wales.

All of which puts my own thoughts on the the definition of "hoon" into the shade:

We all know what a hoon is: a subordinate kept so he can resign if his boss runs into trouble. Leon Brittan was Mrs Thatcher’s hoon at the time of the Westland affair. Norman Lamont was John Major’s hoon after the ERM débâcle.

Charles Kennedy to be EU Commissioner?

Jon Worth points out that Peter Mandelson's term as Britain's EU Commissioner runs out in 2009 and he has said that he does not wish to be reappointed.

So who will take his place?

Worth names four principal candidates:

• Patricia Hewitt
• Charles Clarke
• Geoff Hoon
  
• Charles Kennedy
  

Charles Kennedy to Brussels is an intriguing thought, though I am mystified by Jon Worth's claim that his appointment would "divide the Lib Dems".

I am sure we would all be pleased to see Charles get the job. If anything, it would solve the problem of what the party should do with him in the UK - a problem the new leader will soon have to face.

Though perhaps the demand that he return to the front bench comes more from the media than from the Lib Dem membership?

Thanks to Devil's Kitchen (not that I read it, you understand).

What Geoff Hoon is for

I heard Any Questions? on Friday and was rather disconcerted to find that Geoff Hoon is a humorous and likeable man. Which makes it harder to smile at his recent humiliation by Tony Blair.

I did forecast it a couple of years ago, though I assumed that he would be forced to resign rather than be demoted. Here is House Points from 6 February 2004:

We all know what a hoon is: a subordinate kept so he can resign if his boss runs into trouble. Leon Brittan was Mrs Thatcher’s hoon at the time of the Westland affair. Norman Lamont was John Major’s hoon after the ERM débâcle. Both winced at Elvis Presley’s words: “You ain’t nothing but a hoon dog.”

For the past few months Tony Blair’s hoon has been, well, Geoff Hoon. It was widely expected that he would have to resign when Lord Hutton’s report appeared. So much so that his colleagues rallied round to ensure he wasn’t forced to resign over British troops’ inadequate kit in Iraq. A hoon too soon is no hoon at all.

Now Hutton’s report is out, Hoon is off the hook. He has lived to resign another day.