????

it might not make Friday afternoon

Gordon Brown claimed back ?6,000 after paying his brother for cleaning at his Westminster flat, it has been reported. It is among details of expenses claims made by Cabinet ministers which are to be published by the Daily Telegraph. No 10 said Mr Brown reimbursed his brother for the share of the cost and did not profit at all from it. The paper also says Jack Straw used his expenses to claim back the entire council tax on his second home despite already having a 50% discount on it. Mr Straw said all his claims were within the rules and that he spotted errors himself and repaid the money. The newspaper has obtained details of receipts for claims made by the prime minister, Mr Straw, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and other senior Labour party figures. The BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson said the claims were an embarrassment for the Cabinet and Parliament and showed how lax the system of allowances had become. Cabinet details The details of all MP's expense claims since 2004 are to be published in July under a Freedom of Information request, the result of a long-running battle over MP's expenses. It is reporting that Gordon Brown's brother, Andrew, received ?6,577 over 26 months for cleaning services at the prime minister's private flat in Westminster. No 10 told the newspaper that the PM shared a cleaner with his brother and "reimbursed him [his brother] for the share of the cost". The paper also says Gordon Brown claimed for the same plumbing work twice at his constituency home in successive quarters. However, No 10 said the Parliamentary Fees Office accepted this was done inadvertently and had written to Mr Brown to apologise for not spotting the mistake. It will reveal that Mr Straw claimed his entire council tax bill for his second home despite already enjoying a substantial discount on the bill, worth a reported ?1,500 a year. A spokesman for Mr Straw said all his claims had been made in accordance with Commons rules. While there were errors in the council tax claim, the mistakes were spotted by Mr Straw himself and the money has been repaid. Among other reported revelations is that Ms Blears claimed for expenditure on three different properties during the period including a hotel where she stayed after selling a Manchester home. A spokesman for Ms Blears said she had done nothing wrong and the furnishings she had bought were "reasonable". "Hazel is honest as the day is long," he said. 'Systematic abuse' The Daily Telegraph's assistant editor Ben Brogan said the disclosures showed the "scale of systematic abuse" of parliamentary expenses in recent years. The information was reliable, he stressed and it was in the public interest that it should be published. Some ministers would be "embarrassed" by the facts, he said, but it was up to the public to decide whether the practices being highlighted amount to fraud. Mr Brogan would not say whether the newspaper paid for the information. But he stressed the material in his possession was not limited to the Cabinet and the newspaper would be releasing information about the claims of leading opposition politicians in the coming days. No 10 sources have suggested the information published on Friday is accurate but have insisted the nature and timing of the publication was politically motivated. A series of recent scandals over MPs expenses, centred around the so-called second homes allowance, have prompted widespread calls for reform of the allowances system. MP voted through a series of reforms - including a requirement for MPs to provide receipts for all spending - earlier this month. The Committee on Standards in Public Life is conducting a review of MP's pay and expenses after MPs expressed concern that public confidence in politicians and Parliament has sunk to an all-time low. COME BACK GUY FAWKES

,,,Telegraph publishing cabinet ministers' expenses tomorrow, including Flash Gordon's...no wonder they tried to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act and hide this from us....I expect that the Tories will fair no better, bunch of theiving parasites all round. Will make you weep when you see what these scumbags are claiming for. Snorky, where are we with our petrol bombs?

That fat cunt Lampard can do one too

I'm still p1ssing myself laughing....Chelsea, all that's wrong with football nowadays. "JT", Captain of England, defending multi-millionairres screaming obscenities infront of a global audience and calling the referee a disgrace? The bloke should never captain England again...scumbag, end of.

Zzzzzzzzzz...how about the Xoo post threads on Favourite Bar or Is William Rose a rip off.....my lamb chops or where the most likely place to pull all far more important issues... 2/10, detention, must go back to old standard of work Snorky

I think Sandperson had a punt on this too. PS 'bout Now, another Hammer on the EDF, fare few of us now!

Footsies in Bull territory now 4500 ish compared to 3500ish in March....sell in May and come back in September is what to Masters of the Universe say

48p yesterday.....

My punt on RBS at 11p has proved inspirational.... *ignores all his terrible tips at Cheltenham

nbn - Some people can hack the city others can't - always been the same (the can't hack it and ED, certainly in the short space of time you've lived here before running way to small townsville

100

Millwall in the Shed? Nah

Seriously...and on what basis is the World overdue a Flue Pandemic? Are they Cyclical? Was there not one in 1968? Do we harp back to 1918? Load of crap written about that not based on science too, is my suspicion? We're probaly due a World War too based on their frequency since the first one... ...hearsay and crap journalism is my suspicion on the FACT that we are overdue a pandemic... ..come on Higenot prove me wrong with some googling

I presume they've got that f*cking mindless commentary going on and on..

he should have bought....his I can do it with my kids arrogance has led to these trophyless years, great manager but I think he's tried to prove a point....and failed...he's gonna lose some key players now.

flapjackdavey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the girl from bloody ipenema > > that bloody awful da da dee da da da song from > the early 90s , about the old woman singing for > money .... what was it called ? god knows ? > > dinner jazz ( pizza express jazz ) awful > inoffensive shit to sip your ruddy chardonnay to . "yabadee, yabba da, yabbadee yabbada,,,but she's homeless, she's homeless" and other sentimental awful melody shite.....thanks a bundle for reminding me

Dogging alert

Piers Morgan is a ****

I think that Arsenal fans will now have to face the fact that they are (by some margin) the poorest of the big 4- maybe they were a bit unlucky early on,,,,but they were thoroughly outplayed last week and lucky to get away with 1-0 then.

Groupie - barbie - cindie....I'm all at sea

100

I had a skip outside for a few days and some neighbours put some stuff in there........so what, didn't bother me as much as it seems to have you having a breakdown. PS what street do you live on?...i've a couple of broken chairs and an old barbie I need to get rid

don't panic....don't panic...DON'T PANIC... WE'RE DOOMED

Nope - the cooling towers to the north are in Nunhead