London MPs expenses

The Conservatives have attacked Labour's Tony McNulty for his manipulation of the House of Commons rules on second homes to his benefit, even though his constituency is in inner London. (He is not the worst offender, by the way; top of the list is Harry Cohen, Labour MP for Leyton. Hywel Morgan has drawn up a table of comparisons of seven MPs in adjacent constituencies.)

Surprising, then, that Eric Pickles (the Tories' answer to Chris Rennard) should not only be exposed as another beneficiary, but is also prepared to defend the system, as he did on "Question Time" on Thursday night. There is no YouTube clip as yet (fear of BBC's copyright lawyers?) but at least one Liberal Democrat blogger has made a transcript.