Laugh or Cry?

This time I am leaning towards 'laugh'....a lot

Oh Jacqui, you are the gift that keeps on giving

Her husband (who is employed as her 40,000 pound a year aide) has been caught claiming for porn from subscription TV (I believe it was Virgin media) on her already much-questioned expenses

Now I personally see this as an oversight - even though I personally would not be stupid enough to 'accidentally' claim for my Internet-Phone-TV service bundle on expenses, I will give them the benefit of the doubt here - the porn itself was a tenner, and frankly its so brilliant I would pay for her husband's use myself

Normally I would be up in arms about a possible expense fiddle - but this is so much better than a fiddle, and I think a lot of people agree with me that this a big kick in the teeth for our authoritarian Home Sec

This is the woman who decided there were too many lap-dancing clubs and wanted to curb their growth because she, personally, felt there were too many out there, more recently she has been attacking 'sexualisation' in music and videos

It really could have only been better had her hubby been frequenting such clubs on the public purse, or maybe had a cannabis factory in the cellar, perhaps claiming the electricity bill

Previously her claims were dubious, a bit dodgy - now they are plain farcical, if not outrageous

She not only gets to claim utilities, council tax and furniture on the property where her husband (sorry, Office manager) and children live permanently, but has also claimed for a sofa bed, oven and even a bath plug

They really do think we're stupid to think we would see this as anything but feathering their own nests...or they foolishly thought they'd never get caught (probably the latter) - it's blatantly obvious that these are not business costs, but that she is financing her own home, conveniently we will never get to see how much she pays her sister in rent (but it should be over the maximum of 24,000 per year for cost-effectiveness)

What really bites at most people is that they have to run their home and furnish it from their own salary, and Smith is doing it on expenses when they get a combined salary of 180,000 a year (minimum) - where is all that going? Why can she not afford the interest on her mortgage on a pretty regular family home in the West Midlands, or her bills accumulated by her average size family?

But I have to agree with Michael Brown (yes, he's a Tory) on this - leave her in office, because she no longer has credibility as the stern, iron-fisted 'Jackboots' that people like me have come to loathe - she is now a joke and far more damaging if left to do her job and spout on about national security while we all roll around laughing, so I no longer want her gone (although I wasn't really interested in a sacking, more an election)

He also points out, she may as well be doing it, as she is the incumbent of one of the smallest Labour majorities and it is likely both her and her husband will be unemployed within a year - Happy day

In the interests of balance let us all mock Conservative boss-man Eric Pickles - I had assumed the main parties had picked their candidates for Question Time carefully and assumed Pickles would be reasonably upstanding, they clearly didn't think about his logistics that reasonably - while they aren't particularly dodgy, claiming you can't travel 37 miles to be at work for 9.30am is a joke to most people out there