The issue of MP expenses has stormed back into the spotlight in the UK today after the Telegraph revealed explicit details from MP receipts . MPs who have been called out on their expenses (in particular Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, former defense minister Geoff Hoon, and now Gordon Brown and Jack Straw) say they are working within the rules, but the media has portrayed them as taking unfair advantage and using taxpayer funds for their personal use. MPs need to improve the public’s understanding of what they do, and this can only be accomplished through greater transparency. [...]

Earlier this month as a reaction to the global collapse of the financial sector, the members of Parliament made BBC Business Editor Robert Peston defend his reporting on Northern Rock last year. Peston outlined that he was acting on his duties as a reporter and was not responsible for creating a panic by highlighting the deficiencies of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley. He’s quite right. How can a conscientious investigator cause a panic when in fact the system in which we work has such glaring deficiencies?
It is absolutely right that the press and the media should bring to the surface the social issues that we face, particularly one as worrying as the collapse of the financial system. I can see why MPs would wish to take the line of blaming greedy and selfish bankers and an insensitive press and media. The reason we [...]