Journalists, MPs and their expenses

Writing in the Guardian today, Alexander Chancellor notes the irony of the press hounding MPs for overclaiming their expenses when journalists are themselves famous for their ingenuity in this field.

He recalls a tale from the heroic age of Fleet Street:

When I was a young journalist, there was a popular story (almost certainly apocryphal) about a Daily Express correspondent in Cairo who regularly submitted lavish claims for entertaining a "Colonel Smithers of British Intelligence".

Head office in London, seeking cost-savings, conducted an investigation, which revealed that there was no such officer in Egypt, and it jubilantly cabled the correspondent to say so.

But he cabled back in even greater triumph: "Thanks so much for telling me. I always suspected the man was an impostor."

Still, as Chancellor points out, in those days journalists were only defrauding Lord Beaverbrook or Lord Rothermere. MPs who do this sort of thing are stealing from the taxpayer.