hair shirts are being worn, it seems

you can read here some tut-tuttery about MPs travelling first class.  Apparently, these days they shouldn't.  Or only if it is cheaper than standard class.  Which of course it can be, sometimes.  Sig other and I benefited from first class travel from Derbyshire to London in September while on holiday, because we booked well in advance.  When I was an MP I always travelled first class between London and the constituency in Reading, a short journey, because I could.  We had travel warrants to use for that purpose.  My journey was more civilised that way, not because of the quieter carriages and more comfortable seats, but because people knew my face and buttonholed me on a regular basis.  Seems to me that MPs could be organised, book in advance and pay the upgrade themselves to go first class.  I would.  But leave the tut-tuttery.  Those journos get expenses (and fiddle them on a regular basis) and would hate it if anyone looked at that.  There were, and may still be, expenses fiddles which are far worse, and more expensive to the taxpayer, than first class travel.  Such as Mr Salter claiming 1000 pounds a month between 1997 and 2001 for rent on a London property he did not have.  Which is criminal fraud.