New Labour MPs, with their home improvements and their little property empires, use the expenses system to get away from the working classes as fast as they possibly can. Tory MPs with their moats and country homes and porticoes (whatever the hell they are) have already got away from the working classes as fast as they possibly could and now use their expenses to shore up the defences.
So what do the Tory expenses revelations tell us in terms of comparative party sociology? Arriviste versus arrived, so far as I can see. The Labour people seem to be scurrying up the ladder like prehensile little monkeys, frantically flipping properties, charging the taxpayers for stuff they’ve seen in the Sunday Times style section, claiming for everything on a throw shit at the wall basis. Labour are the garagistes now. The Tories? Clean my moat, taxpayer. And my swimming pool. Dig my garden. And build my portico while you’re at it. This is cruise control.
I now expect the same observation to be made on Friday’s Newsquiz as well, never mind Have I Got News for You. Not that the writers of these shows take their leads from blogs, oh no…