All Hail Heather Brooke

For years, Heather Brooke has battled to get the British Government to reveal details that in many other countries would be freely available. She is a journalist in the old-fashioned mode, worthy of comparison with Duncan Webb,James Cameron, and many another sadly no longer with us. All she wanted to know was: How much of our money were MP's claiming, and what for?

The information she was after was eventually leaked to the Daily Telegraph. Could anyone fail to be amused/disgusted by the behaviour of so many British Members of Parliament, as revealed by the newspaper for the past week?

Much of it falls into the category "You couldn't make it up" alias "If you'd put this in a novel they'd have said it was too far-fetched."

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ for gob-smacking details.

For a compare-and-contrast between the USA and the UK, see

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/15/mps-expenses-heather-brooke-foi

(and if you're British, weep).