Sunday, February 18, 2007

What's happened to Baker's air miles?

It's been hard to avoid Norman Baker in the past few days thanks to him getting a breakdown of MPs travel expenses published.

He has been racking up column inches with this, even getting the blue rinse bible that is the Daily Mail to praise him. But his victory isn't quite what it seems.

First off the data Baker got hold of doesn't take account of where MPs live and how good local transport links are. It also doesn't include travel that MPs didn't claim expenses on - like his own freebie trip to Australia last year.

But what's this I see in today's Sunday Mirror? Baker says: "If MPs accure air miles they should be given back to the public purse or to a charity."

I wonder if he handed in the air miles from his freebie flight to the land of Oz?

No comments: