MPs expenses: As I say, not as I do

Western leaders love to lecture countries in the Global South about “good governance”. Corruption, they say, is holding you back.

Revelations about British MPs’ expenses show that our ministers are just as adept at milking the system as any petty bureaucrat in Africa or Asia.

One honourable member after another has asserted that they haven’t broken any rules. Maybe so – but for millions of people the scandal is yet another example of double standards.

Next time our leaders bleat on about the need for the “rule of law” in poorer countries, we should demand they take their own medicine.