British Parliament spins in expense row

I don't know about the Commons being in a spin, as your headline claims. I have it from a reliable source that some MPs, gathered in pubs not too close to Westminster, are singing the following ditty to Gustav Holst's famous tune:

I vow to thee, my country, and you taxpayers, too,
That cheating on my expense claims I now most deeply rue.
But look, I’ve paid it all back, there’s receipts that, I maintain,
Prove I’m still at heart an honest chap. Please vote for me again.

Look, there’s another country, way to the south of here,
Where dishonest MPs go scot-free, as if they’re in the clear.
That’s too much to ask our voters here in England, it is true.
But, dear leader, let me recommend Africa’s ubuntu.
Given that mercy, I assure you, and I speak with barēd chest,
That just like our dusky cousins, I’ll give plain theft a rest.

Journalists, famous for their creative expense claims, are said to be the loudest applauders.

Bravo John Collings!

This whole mess in the Commons makes Travelgate look very small. Notice how every racist who reacted to Travelgate scandal ("only in Africa", "Third World", "wouldn't have been thought of, let alone done anywhere else...") as only a racist can, is now very quite?

Bravo Frank De Sales BRAVO!!

In Travelgate did anyone resign? Let alone for the first time in 300 years. And did anyone agree to pay it back? Or did any party tell its MPs to pay it back or be expelled?

That shows you the difference between SA and the UK.

The UK finds it and clears it up. SA finds it and makes excuses until everybody gives up on it and pretends it didn't happen.

Yeh Franky give us another one - play the rascist card its an easy way to weasel out of things. Like not come clean with Travelgate, buy the debtors book, let the minions take the fall. The difference being is that millions starve here whereas elsewhere it somehow appears to work.

This has obviously been going on for a long time. And the only reason there is even talk of paying it back is the public disgust. If those parties could be sure of retaining votes without anyone paying any money back it would also be swept under the rug. The only difference between here and a country like the UK is that they have more practice at stealing, and are better at hiding it.

You guys dissing me have missed the point. What I was saying was that this can apparently happen (and does) anywhere. It seems parliamentary dishonesty is not limited to the third world (read 'black' in many people's minds). Even the mother of all parliament's can host the mother of all parliamentary scandals - & travlegate is really small fry. What happenes afterwards doesn't detract from the racist undertones from the eternal pessimists who jumped on the travelgate bandwagon and played their rascist banjo...