Legg Letters A Flippin' Whitewash

A few greedy MPs are still trying to get one over on Legg. But the Orange Party fears a big bucket of whitewash over decent Legg's expenses letters. Big bucks were made by switching second homes. A flippin' flipping lid is being kept on the House of Shame.

MPs' expenses continue to centre on payback time for a bit of cleaning here and a bit of gardening there, with decent Legg getting the flak.

These expenses are all second division stuff and generally piddling sums. The big money was made out of second homes switching, capital gains tax fiddles and ghost mortgage claims.

What happened to the tax and mortgage fiddles at the centre of the second homes flipping scam? Whatever happened to promised police and taxman probes?

The scandal was always over dodgy second homes switching. But the Legg letter focuses on expenses. Even that's unfair cry MPs. Retrospective, making up the rules as he goes along. And they've got a small, blunt point.

The real culprits are not the fools who blindly "followed the rules" but the greedy commons scammers who deliberately lied and cheated taxpayers because they thought they could get away with it.

But two homes secretary Smith was hauled before the commons to apologise, not by honourable Legg but by toothless Lyons - the commons 'sleaze' watchdog and part of the crony culture.

That standards inquiry found she "wrongly" switched her home. Shameless Smith was given a ticking off by Lyons for her second homes scam. But hey, she didn't have to pay back a penny.

The inquiry into Smith by Lyons was responding to specific complaints and the MP gets off scot-free.

But Legg was appointed by Brown - not parliament, at a time when he was desperate to duck the flak and win some political points. He was specifically asked by Brown to audit all MPs' claims after the expenses scandal broke in the Telegraph.

The whispering campaign against Legg is turning into a roar but he was acting under a Brown remit, not off his own bat, despite what the spinners say.

The expenses ghost may be coming back to haunt many MPs including Brown who has been forced to pay back some ill-gotten gains. Tough. He's a victim of his own MPs' expenses spin.

The Orange Party isn't holding its breath, with an unwitting Downing Street appointed patsy in charge of a whitewash, forced to focus on 'minor' expenses claims rather than mortgage and tax fiddles of the second homes scam.

The flipping second homes scam will never see the light of day as part of a Legg audit while obnoxious squeaker Bercow is calling the shots.

Which cabinet cronies past and present have been fingered over the flipping homes outrage exposed in the Telegraph's original revelations?

What happened to cabinet couple Balls and Cooper and their triple flipping scam? What happened to the cheats who flipped away to feather their own nest, gorging themselves on a taxpayer-funded feast of corruption?

Former cabinet minister McNulty has been ticked off by Legg and told he won’t have to repay any of his second home allowance.

But he's been told Lyons has yet to deliver judgement, with Legg adding that his findings did not deal with "any payments under separate investigation by the Standards Commissioner".

MPs can huff and puff for all they're worth. The real scandal comes from crooks, cheats and conmen still hidden behind the smokescreen of Brown's expenses remit to Legg and the speaker's stooges headed up by toothless Lyons.

In a democracy, the electorate is the best regulator. Voters are quite capable of kicking out the crooks, the spivs and the chancers. They're chomping at the bit but denied the chance.

Top picture: Private Eye cover