"I could do with a trouser press" and other interesting expenses claims

Having been out of the country for a fair while you could say I had missed some of the epic political dramas of recent times. All of which appear to have happened in the first 5 months of this year and under Brown's (prolific?) reign. Wow. What has the country come to? To quote Lily Allen (and it's always fun when pop culture and politics align,) "everyone's at it." No, not drugs, although it's a wonder there haven't been a few claims for recreational recovery-aides (god knows the Speaker needs Valium, and is clearly on something the majority of the time anyway.) Whilst I was basking in Bali, touring Thailand and vanquishing Vietnam (can I claim for those on expenses?) it appears the tiny threads that held are political system together finally crumbled and disappeared. I blame Brown. I mean, it's not really his fault, but when the PM is so useless it does make you start to question everything about the way "democracy" is 'done' in England.

So, after Harriet Harman decided that MP's expenses should not have to be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, an EDM (drafted by our very own Jo Swinson-the baby with the brains? I'd give her more credit than most MP's put together,) began circulating to demand that the expenses become as translucent as possible, so that we could all see where our taxes had gone. And here we are. We see that MP's have claimed for things as exciting as interior designers (couldn't she have just bought "Good Homes" magazine?) mortgages that had already been repaid (he was probably sub-letting it as well, they are starting to sound like a load of fraudulent benefit claimants,) elephant-shaped lamps (not even nice, MP's have bad taste,) and chocolate santas. Crikey. And don't I wish i'd already become an MP, the things I could have had.

Sadly the Lib Dems don't appear unscathed, with brilliant claims having been made for a trouser press (come on, he's got to look smart, right?) a rocking chair (that's a bit excessive, she couldn't got a cheaper one from Ikea,) and my own personal favourite, a council tax summons, claimed by who else but Lembit. Bless 'im. I can see the next song written for glee club now...

It's all providing great entertainment, but when they have paid back the money and crept away into a dark crevice of their constituency home (which they now have to pay for themselves generally, shock of shocks,) the ashes of yet-another-scandal will remain on that most tarnished of carpets. Can anyone have faith in the current political spectrum? If people at the next GE were not coming out in droves to vote against Labour in protest, I wouldn't be surprised if turnout was lower than ever. It's a shame that expenses-gate can't be brushed under the carpet as easily as some of the scandals that have occurred in recent times, so that the politicians could get on with actually doing something useful, but they will probably all have to get second jobs now to supplement them so they can afford to have their moats cleaned.