The Rate Tart

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The Westminster Standards Watchdog is reportedly considering a complaint by a BNP politician over Speaker Michael Martin's use of air miles on flights for his family.

The air miles were earned on official business but used to fly members of Martin's family between London and Glasgow for a new year holiday. Whilst the Speaker has not broken any rules, Members of Parliament are advised to use air miles to offset the cost of future flights if possible.

If you think this all sounds more like political opportunism than genuine corruption we doubt you are alone. Is it really a valuable use of tax-payers money to investigate how an air miles credit card is used?

Think about it. If you travel for work, do you really expect to use the air miles gained to save the boss some expenses or do you treat it as a nice perk? If you pay expenses on a cash back credit card do you deduct the cash back from your expenses claim.

Thought not.

So how about we all get a bit less hysterical and focus the resources of the police and parliament on genuinely dodgy dealings. And don't even get us started on the BNP trying to claim the moral high ground...