At the European Parliament yesterday afternoon they held a hearing on the proposals from the Commission to limit access to information. Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, was there and gave evidence. The most interesting thing he said was that when he ruled that all MSP’s expenses had to be publicly declared, the result was a 30% drop in the total expenses bill. He suggested the same might happen if the MEPs had to be open about their expenses.

Do you think that if the Tory MEP leader Giles Chichester knew that voters would be able to hold him to account for his expenses that he would have fiddled £500,000 through his family firm?. Stinks doesn’t it?

Incidentally if you are wondering why LibDem and Labour MEPs are not attacking Chichester, the answer is obvious. They are all at it…