But has too much been blacked out?

This morning at 6am copies of all the expense claims from all members of the house went online – for all to see. The website is here.

This is the data that has been promised for so long and which has already cost a number of political careers – the latest one being Kitty Ussher, the treasury minister, overnight.

MPs have had the opportunity to blank out personal details that they did not want made public and this might take away some of the value of the information. It was, of course, a copy of the un-blanked out material that found its way into the hands of the Daily Telegraph.

No doubt local journalists, PPCs and other campaigners will start combing the data to see what they can find on their local person. No doubt, as well, that there’s still lots of information there that many MPs will find embarrassing.

This all came from a hard fought campaign a by, at first, Heather Brook, a lone freedom of information campaigner who was opposed almost every step of the the way.

So just as interest in the Telegraph’s disclosures started to fade we have this. I wonder whether anything that’s revealed will affect the betting.

****Westminster constituency betting markets****

Mike Smithson