It is becoming even easier to know when it is Sunday. It has become the day when papers like The Mail On Sunday expose the latest MP who has been caught claiming massive expenses from the public purse.
This week, it is former Defence Minister, Geoff Hoon's turn to perform in the spotlight. He was granted an official, rent free, residence during his tenure in office, while at the same time, he was claiming £70,000 second home allowance on his 'constituency home' in Derby and renting out his London house through a commercial letting agent for an estimated £70.000.
Of course. like so many of his fellow claimants, Mr Hoon has used the excuse: "I only claimed what the rules allowed for". Officially, he is correct - after all the rules were drafted by his fellow MPs.
Morally, though, he is just another greedy MP who has crossed the line of acceptable standards. If he did not possess the judgement to realise that fact, he was surely not a suitable candidate for the senior role of Defence Secretary, in the first place.
Therefore, one must assume he knew only too well what he had been doing and is guilty, along with many of his colleagues, of abusing his position and the trust shown in him by the country.
Meanwhile, a recent performer in the spotlight, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, is now having to face more embarrassment after she is said to have claimed: a £39.99 barbecue, a £2.50 toothbrush holder, a £14.00 doormat, a £104.56 gas patio heater, and a £369.99 flatscreen TV.
All are, apparently, essential commodities to enable her to 'perform her duties as an MP'
I wonder which greedy 'pig' will be caught at the trough next week!
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