…or “who will guard the guardians?”

So it appears that the head of the National Audit Office – which is there to “[scrutinise] public spending on behalf of Parliament” – is able to authorise his own expenses. In carrying out his role (apparently), Sir John Bourn has over the past six months spent £16,998 of taxpayers’ money on mainly first class travel for himself and his wife. And she does what, precisely?

Sir John and Lady Bourn took first class foreign trips to San Francisco, Venice, Lisbon, Brazil, South Africa, the Bahamas and Budapest. One trip to Brazil cost £15,997. So why – exactly – is the watchdog for public spending in the UK travelling first class to these destinations and more to the point why is his wife accompanying him?

Still the Public Accounts Commission investigated and cleared him of any wrongdoing. Well they would, wouldn’t they, given that our MPs claimed £87.6M in expenses themselves last year…