Gordon Brown is Great...

...isn't he? He's come out finally and said that the MPs second homes allowance should be stopped. How come he wasn't doing or saying anything about it when he was Chancellor? How come as our supreme leader he didn't tackle the problem until the clamour of public (and media) opinion became deafening? It's because he's no leader; he's Gordon the Reactor.

Perhaps he has been forced into this move by what must be the height of cynical expense claims by the Labour husband and wife MPs who have both claimed the allowance so they could buy a £500,000 Thames-side apartment when their constituencies are outside the geographical limit. Ann Keen, a junior health minister, and her husband Alan have claimed at least £175,000 in publicly-funded expenses despite the fact the Labour MPs shared London constituency home is just 30 minutes away.

Ann Keen is MP for Brentford and Isleworth in West London, and Mr Keen represents neighbouring Feltham and Heston, live in a terraced house in Brentford. It is just nine miles by road from parliament, in a journey which takes 30 minutes by car or 55 minutes by bus and Tube. They bought a flat 7 years ago that is situated behind the Royal Festival Hall in a complex which has its own swimming pool, hot tub, gym, concierge service and spectacular views of the Thames. Between 2002 and 2007 - the latest year for which figures are available - Mrs Keen claimed £87,325 from the ACA, while her husband claimed £87,803.

The fact is that while the rules allow such things surely their moral radar would be sufficiently attuned to tell them that this is obscene (far more so that Mr Smiths adult movies). Is it any wonder that MPs have become so far removed from the realities of real life that they can no longer understand what life is like for the majority of people in Britain. And don't give me the security argument, the late sittings in the commons or whatever else. They could get a taxi home and charge it under parliamentary rules. This is all about profiting at our expense.

Socialists? They have not a scintilla of understanding of what it means.