I’ve been holding off on publishing my views on the whole MP expenses debacle until I could get my sticky-mitts on the data, and it makes very interesting reading.

For those of you who’d like to delve in yourselves, you can download this Open Office spreadsheet with all the data MPs Expenses ‘07-’08 (if you don’t have Open Office, you can download it for free at OpenOffice.org)

Average Expenses (per head) by Party

Sorting through the data has proven to be very interesting, and I found this result most surprising. I never expected that the Conservative MPs would prove the cheapest per head on average (at £138,339.88), with LibDems the most expensive (£151,210.16) and Labour in second place (£146,422.84).

Given that there might be geographical reasons for the difference, I trimmed out all of the staffing, 2nd home, London supplements and travel costs; leaving just office, stationary, postage, IT and communications. Guess what? Still the same order, with LibDem MPs costing on average £6883.87 per head more than their Tory colleagues.

Party Leaders

Of the 3 main party leaders, Gordon Brown (Lab, Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath) was the least expensive at £124,454; David Cameron (Con, Whitney) claimed £148,829 and Nick Clegg (LD, Sheffield Hallam) was the most expensive claiming £149,026. It’s difficult to know from this data how much Mr. Brown is saved (if anything) in costs as PM, so take this with a pinch of salt.

The BBC have an excellent overview of the mess so far and we can all expect more revelations from the Telegraph in the coming days.

From MPs there’s much talk about “reform” but nothing drastic enough to appease the public. The primary concern is naturally the potential for abuse of the 2nd home system and the most cost-effective method I can see in the long term is to abolish the need for second homes by building a “halls of residence” style facility to provide London-based accommodation, with centrally managed telephony, internet and cleaning etc.

Each MP would have a sepeatate office area and bedroom area, along with bathroom facilities; similar to those found in reasonable business-focused hotels. The building could be far better secured than MPs London houses and the centralisation of costs would significantly reduce an MPs need for expenses.

Staffing needs could be supplied by the Civil Service, with each constituency being allocated the relevant assistants, who would remain in place regardless of the party holding the seat. This gives constituents more stability, prevents the abuse of staffing expenses through hiring partners/relatives and ensures that each MP had the most efficient possible staff.

That’s my thoughts…Why not share your views in the comments.