News is coming out that one potential route to "overcome" the issue of MP expenses and the outcry over what they spend their money on is to...well...properly hide their actions from us so we can't outcry any more!

However this isn't the worst of it, as they are saying they'd like to do this by giving every MP £23k "for their second home", in a move that would both mean that receipts and accounts would seemingly not have to be kept for what they are spending our taxes on, but also meaning some MPs will receive more money every year than they usually spend on their housing needs, effectively wasting even more of our money on what looks amazingly like a pay rise.

Can I just say... HALLELUJAH! If there is a god then they have obviously heard our collective prayers because today's PMQs was far beyond head and shoulders above the rest of the recent events

The reason for this seems to be partly down to a slight reduction in the heckling, but in reality I believe it to be because of as much as half the amount of planted Labour questions, real issues being discussed, and perhaps through a lack of pressure a Prime Minister that actually answered questions better without the constant need to attack "the party opposite"

How would you feel if someone was able to look at every web page you were viewing? How would you feel if they were able to store a record of what you viewed so that they can analyse it? How would you feel if they then used that data to target advertising at you? How would you feel if all of this was done without your consent, without your knowledge, and without your consultation?

Well if you're a BT Broadband customer then welcome to the new age, where your browsing habits are sold off to the highest bidder, in this case a company called "Phorm", in one of the biggest scandals of the year that you almost didn't hear about. For those of you on Virgin and TalkTalk don't think you're safe as you're next, and assuming that Phorm get their way then other major ISPs such as Orange and Tiscali will be following suit in the near future.

Finally in this trilogy of posts on the issue of poor and sometimes frightening governance by Labour, and in this case to a degree parliament as a governing body, I cover the now well trodden subject of MPs and just how much power the government should be giving them. In particular this post is spurred on by the recent news about bugging MPs, but stems from the wording of anti-terror legislation on several counts, the debacle over police pay and partly how the idea of electoral reform has been dealt with.

Let's first look at the most recent furore, that of bugging MPs...

The next episode of Politalks is now here, with thanks to Gavin Whenman who will for the foreseeable future be partnering me on the project. Video below is probably NSFW!

I'm trying something new here, not sure if it's going to work as well as intended but here it is. Read more for the transcript of this movie.

A quick one here, but it seems that two Labour MP's have decided to check for double standards in the Tory ranks given just how fervently they are pursuing Peter Hain over the ambiguity of donations he received during the campaign to be deputy leader of the Labour party. It seems as though eighty Tory MP's have been reported to be investigated over their donations.