Comment: Duck house rules

As the MPs' expenses scandal rolls on into its third week there seems to be no limit to the moral depths MPs will plumb in their misuse of public funds for personal gain. It is a sad sight to see elected members of Parliament hiding behind limp excuses of being within the rules or claiming to be unaware of significant financial commitments and transactions.

More revealing still has been the detail. We swing from the bizarre duck house-style cause celebre to the jaw dropping sums extracted from the public through capital gains tax avoidance and homes-for-relatives scams. It is clear that both MPs and the Commons fees office consider £1,000 for a plasma screen TV or £2,000 for a sofa reasonable expenses. Thousands of pounds for cleaning and groceries and tens of thousands of pounds for garden maintenance are routine. The hundreds of thousands of pounds pocketed by MPs on the subsequent sale of those houses hardly gets a mention.