SNOUTS IN THE TROUGH

Yesterday, during my weekly stint in Oxfam , I picked up an excellent bargain. A brand-new IKEA bathroom mat for just £3.99. Somehow, I cannot imagine the likes of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith perusing the local charity shops for dinky household items. They don't need to - thanks to the "John Lewis list." Actually, my brother-in-law works for John Lewis so I could probably take advantage of his staff discount. Tbe fact is that, even with a discount, John Lewis is way off my scale. And millions of others on ordinary incomes and ordinary lifestyles. Yet MPs feel entitled to take £23,000 a year from the public purse so their second homes can look good.
No wonder people are disgusted with their political representatives - they do not live on the same planet as the rest of us. Even Peter Kilfoyle, Militant witch-hunter turned left-winger ( of a sort) arged for this disgraceful example of "snouts in the trough" syndrome.
As Westminster corresponder David Hencke says in today's Guardian: " If MPs think the public are going to be sympathetic to the case for cash for pergolas, kitchens and plasma screen TVs in their London homes, they do not live in the real world.