""Congratulations to the Tory Press for diverting attention away from the bankers!
This thread is definitely taking on a tone of hysteria"

Why is that hysterical? I agree that MPs' abuse of their expenses system is completely unacceptable, those who abused it should be punished and the system thoroughly over-hauled. But let's keep things in perspective. A few MPs got away with a few thousand quid by exploiting a weak system. But bankers lost billions, possibly trillions, of pounds - losing jobs, pensions and homes in the process and creating massive economic instability. Such instability, in the past, has led to war and the loss of millions of lives. Our attention has now been turned away from the really monstrous abuses of the bankers to the petty and squalid abuses of MPs. As always it seems that if you're going to commit crimes, and to get away with them, you have to think really, really big!