Ming's place

Thank you for all your comments on yesterday's blip. Although I wasn't particularly keen on it at the time, it has grown on me - due in part, I am sure, to the fact that so many of you seem to have liked it :-)

A topical blip today. The house on the right, behind the tree, is where Ming Campbell lives. When he isn't living in his interior-designed London flat. It's on my daily blip-route. I know he lives here because the press posse spent some time hovering about outside when he became leader of the Liberal Democrats and again, not long afterwards, when he "resigned".

Those of you outside the UK may be unaware of the extent to which the media have recently become obsessed with MPs' expenses. Quite right that they should be commenting on this too - many of the claims that have come to light have certainly been improper, some appear to have been nothing less than fraudulent. From what I've seen, it sounds as if Ming Campbell has been one of the lesser offenders, but he and Margaret Beckett were given a very hard time by the audience on Question Time last night, and deservedly so.

Whilst I have no sympathy with the offending Members, it does worry me that this affair has led to so much bad press for the major parties that it looks as if the minor parties may benefit in forthcoming elections. Including the BNP. Not a good thing.

I'm also having difficulty understanding why anyone is surprised that MPs have been abusing the system. Nobody really thought they were honourable people, did they?

But enough of the serious stuff. The weekend starts here :-) Have a good one, all!