Australian photographer Nigel Brennan has been held hostage in Somalia for nine months and now he’s asking for the government to help secure his release. Plus NYT fumbles Watergate and expenses scandal helps BBC.
British MP expenses scandal
Media briefs: Journalists in trouble — and missing the story
Letter from...: Cambridge, as MP expenses scandal unfolds
Anything less than sleet in a howling gale is considered fine in Pommyland. We have at least been spared that so far. Gavin Moodie pens a postcard from Cambridge.
More than 200 MPs employ family members — and claim for it
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has established that many of the MPs — more than 200 in total — who employ relatives have been able to claim extra expenses.
Friday highlights: Best of the MP expenses scandal
In a week where the UK MP expenses scandal has unravelled faster than a ball of string in the paws of a kitten, it’s time to recap some of the highlights, like “best use of inappropriate funds”.
Scamalot — England’s own watergate
Jon Stewart mocks the English over the expenses scandal, focusing in particular on the MP who had his moat cleaned.
Poet Laureate resists Westminster rhymes
Britain’s Poet Laurete, Carol Ann Duffy, has reluctantly started work on a poem about recent events.
Brew a pot of tea and catch up with the MP expenses scandal
Britain’s MP expenses scandal has exposed a bipartisan culture of greed in the Parliament. Here’s how it all unravelled.
Many more MPs will go: Brown
Gordon Brown says more MPs will be suspended from the British Labour party in his crackdown on the abuse of parliamentary expenses.
How an American brought down the house of rorts
Meet “sassy” American reporter Heather Brooke, the woman who fought and won to expose the British MP expenses scandal.
Daily Telegraph’s journalistic triumph of courage and skill
I have written some harsh things about The Daily Telegraph. I don’t withdraw them. But something fine and noble has emerged with its MP expenses coverage, writes Stephen Glover.
10 strangest MP claims
Glitter toilet seat, Kit Kat bars, mole whacking… British MPs claimed it all.
Crikey Says: Anger over UK MP expenses can’t be exported
When things go wrong, as they have in the UK, public outrage is entirely appropriate. But the sort of knee jerk media hostility toward Australian politicians is ridiculous.
Britain’s House of Commons speaker resigns
Michael Martin gives MPs what they asked for — his resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons. Thus ends a nine-year reign for the Glaswegian who started out as a sheet metal worker.
Daily Tele (Oz version) squeezes the lemon on MP expenses
The British MP expense scandal keeps getting better and better for the media. So today, Australia’s Daily Tele makes a very lame effiort to try and beat up outrage here. Pathetic, says Trevor Cook.
Gordon Brown: it’s time to end MPs’ “gentlemen’s club”
British PM Gordon Brown announces the need for an independent commission to monitor MPs’ expenses — as clearly self-regulation isn’t working.
Time to go, Michael Martin
House of Commons Speaker Micahel Martin deserves some of the blame for the MP allowances fiasco, but his inadequecy as a leader is the real reason he should be replaced.
Guy Rundle: The deep wormy rot of English politics
The improvised nature of British political institutions has always been something that anglophiles have celebrated. The downside is that it gives you plenty of places to hide.
UK expenses rorts: Her Majesty is not amused
It is now reported that the Queen herself used the audience she gave Gordon Brown last Tuesday to express her distaste at the disclosures. It would be surprising if she hadn’t, writes Simon Heffer.
MPs’ rivers of exempt income
Like much of the wonderful tax-free world inhabited by MPs, their exemptions flow from statutory provisions they have voted through for themselves.
UK MP expenses scandal: now in cartoon form
Guardian cartoonist Patrick Blower livedraws the British MP expenses controversy.
The Age of Entitlement is over
The UK MP expenses controversy should herald in a cultural revolution towards a new green morality, writes Madeleine Bunting.
Eight weasel ways politicians avoid saying sorry
In years to come, psychologists will be writing doctoral theses on the responses by British MPs to the charges of dishonesty in the great allowances scandal of 2009.
schadenfreude Guy Rundle: Black days for Gordon Brown
The one undoubted advantage of Gordon Brown going now quickly … is that none of us would have to watch him go slowly
