Modeling Journey

Over in Britain, a furor has erupted over the claims by MPs from both the ruling Labour Party and opposition Tory Party for expenses:

" A week after its opening salvo, the Daily Telegraph is still reaping great benefit from its exclusive expose of MPs' expenses.

It is a story that has shaken Westminster to its foundations and which continues to lead most news bulletins and broadsheet front pages.

When the Telegraph's assistant editor, Benedict Brogan, appeared on BBC One's Question Time this week, it attracted its highest ever audience - 3.8 million viewers tuned in to see Margaret Beckett and Sir Menzies Campbell being heckled, more than a million up on its average audience this year.

The paper itself has boosted its sales and web traffic."

The results have been catastrophic for the governing party, with opinion polls showing that the bottom has fallen out of the support for PM Brown.

Even the Speaker is under attack, because officials reporting to him appear to have given MPs of several parties advice on how to milk the British taxpayer.

We are probably witnessing the death throes of Brown and his Labour government.

Now, Canadian media, how about some equally distinguished in depth articles about exactly how insulated our MPs are from ordinary Canadians, and how this probably makes it easier for them to be heartless regarding the jobless and disadvantaged? How about a few comparisons of an MPs total earnings and benefits versus the average Canadian's? Include by all means things like expense accounts and pension plans and tax exempt payments.

And then let us see which parties will come forward with policies designed to make our MPs live like ordinary Canadians …