"Claims must only be made for expenditure that it was necessary for a Member to incur to ensure that he or she could properly perform..."

"Claims must only be made for expenditure that it was necessary for a Member to incur to ensure that he or she could properly perform his or her parliamentary duties."

So says The Green Book - A guide to Members allowances so it was with some interest that I read the explanations offered by sundry Labour leeches today: The BBC report that:

"Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward claimed £100,000 to help pay his mortgage interest"

That's the multi-millionaire Shaun Woodward claiming money from me, Mrs NotaSheep and all the other poor UK taxpayers
to help fund another property to add to his portfolio of property around the world.

As is often the case it was the small claims that intrigued me:

"They include a Muller yoghurt costing 38p and a pizza costing £1.06, both bought for one of his assistants.

The claims also show the secretary of state's apparent liking for Gold Blend coffee - £11.22 per tin, Tetley tea bags, £3.85 a box and Diet Coke at £12.56 for that regular order.

He also claims for the satirical magazine Private Eye as well as the Guardian, the Times, the Mirror, the Sun and - perhaps ironically given the source of the revelations - the Daily Telegraph.

The newspaper also reports that he claimed for a second-hand book."

I have lost count of the number of times I have brought food or drinks for staff working under me at weekends and I never claimed the money back, why should I? Mrs NotaSheep will sometimes take her team out for drinks to thank them for working late or under extreme pressure, should she claim this money back from her firm? Of course not she earns enough to pay for her team occasionally. Mr Woodward, it seems, sees no expense as his responsibility instead he seems to claim for everything. I have a friend who works in two cities, so he purchased a flat in the second city and stocks it with provisions for the weekdays he is there, he doesn't claim for every biscuit or ready meal as he would eat at home as he would eat at his work flat. MPs seem to think that their salary is theirs and that every other expense should be claimable against the public purse, they are wrong.

So Shaun Woodward claims for all these items and then the BBS report:

"A spokeswoman for Mr Woodward said details of his claims are published every year and they are within the rules and guidelines. "

How exactly are they within the rules and guidelines? Are all these claims "for expenditure that it was necessary for a Member to incur to ensure that he or she could properly perform his or her parliamentary duties."?

The people are angry, the BBC are trying to protect their Labour friends and aching for some Conservative MPs to attack and Michael Crick is oh so quiet.