Lies, damned lies and anything a politician says.

See those goal posts? See 'em? Got their exact location fixed in your mind? Good, now that's sorted we'll move them somewhere more convenient.

Jacqui Smith was facing new sleaze claims last night over her constituency home.

The property on which she has claimed thousands of pounds in second homes allowance is actually her primary residence for tax purposes, it was revealed.

Actually this really doesn't come as a shock, which speaks volumes about my view of politicians in general, and money grubbing, self serving, nest feathering, scheming bastards in particular.

The Home Secretary has pocketed £84,000 of taxpayers' money on the home she shares with her husband, Richard Timney, and their two children in Redditch, her West Midlands constituency.

That was only possible because she persuaded the House of Commons authorities that her main home is actually her sister's spare bedroom in London, where she lodges during the week.

But after a freedom of information request, Redditch council has confirmed that Miss Smith pays council
tax as if the £300,000 constituency house was her main home.

So her main residence is her sister's place for the purposes of being a thieving cow an MP and her house in Redditch is a second home. But as far as paying council tax in Redditch is concerned it's the other way round.

According to Miss Smith's expenses claims, her husband was the only adult who lived there full time. But the couple have not claimed the discount at any time since they moved into their current home in May 2004.

In a statement, Redditch Borough Council said: 'Jacqui Smith has not benefited from a "second home" council tax discount. The charge has been calculated on the basis of there being two adult residents in the property.' ...

One reason why Miss Smith might have wanted to avoid claiming the second homes council tax discount is that by admitting to the tax man that it was a second residence she would be liable for capital gains tax if the property is sold.

Another possible reason could be that it might be blatantly fucking obvious to anyone from the council using RIPA to check up on council tax cheats that the place is really occupied by two adults rather than one, and since Jacqboot is the Home Secretary presumably she's got a rough idea how often that happens. It's just a thought.

The question now is what happens next. The Wail reported that she's going to be the subject of an inquiry by the sleaze watchdog, but despite the fact that she's clearly trying to have it both ways - her main home being simultaneously the porn palace with the nice sink in Redditch and her sister's place in London depending on who's asking and why - I expect she'll get away with it. Maybe she'll be forced to resign her job as Home Sec, which she's almost certain to lose in barely a year anyway (perhaps with her seat as well, who knows?), but repay the money? Sorry, just don't see it happening. I imagine it'll be found to be within a strict and technical interpretation of the rules, and of course there's every chance that by then so much shit will be hitting the expenses fan that Jacqboot will have been forgotten.

Worried MPs are fighting a 'rearguard action' to try to delay the release of details about their taxpayer-funded expenses.

Anxiety about what their multi-million pound claims will reveal have spurred some MPs to attempt to delay publication of their receipts beyond July, it was claimed last night....

Another source said Labour whips - responsible for party discipline - were understood to be ' trying to run a rearguard action to delay publication'.

Last week, it was claimed that at least three Labour MPs were terrified that release of their expenses claims will expose them as adulterers and financial cheats.

Fuck delaying it even more. This has been on the cards long enough that they've had ample time to get their shit together, and they still want more time to hide their abuses and dream up lies and excuses for the excesses that are about to be revealed. No, fuck 'em. Publish now. Bastards.

Edit: I've changed my mind about making them publish now. I kind of like the way The Telegraph are slowly turning the screw.