Saintandy666

He didn't misuse his expenses though, all he was doing was paying his Landlord at quite a good rate. He was not enriching himself, and made no profit. The irony is, as I have said, he actually got a very good deal for the tax payer out of this arrangement. It's a sad day that man of such quality has been allowed to go in this way.

It's nothing to do with syphoning... the guy was originally his Landlord, just because they fell in love it doesn't suddenly become malicious. Again, I point out this whole arrangement worked out cheaper than any of possible arrangement would have been. We are in dangerous waters right now, ruining many political careers of decent, hard-working intelligent politicians. The loss is as much ours as theirs.

Yer, but a large amount of his income would have come from the renting of the room. Remember that he was his Landlord first before all this, and laws was probably too afraid to do anything in 2006 when the rules changed for obvious reasons. And no, it's not about him being greedy, he could have claimed waaaay more if he had done it not this way.

Excellent. Whatever you think about his views, he has always worked hard and has always seemed like a very honest man. What you saw is what you got, and he could relate directly with the working class as well.

The language you use is harsh. Saying 'fiddling' makes it sound like he did it deliberately and profit. I'd like to point out the irony of this is that the taxpayer actually got a BETTER deal out of this than if he had actually flipped his home or bought another home. You totally ignore the human side of this, a man in the closet afraid to come out. I have a couple of friends who are currently not out, so I can sympathise with his mindset. He was not motivated by greed and for that reason I would say this was a stupid mistake and he does not lose his integrity.

The real loss is for the country to be honest, David Laws is a politician of the highest integrity and has a lot intelligence to go with it. He would have been excellent in this job.

It's sad that he has had to resigned, but obviously he broke the rules from 2006 onwards. However, I still maintain he did not do this maliciously and for profit. Ironically, he actually claimed a lot less than he could of if he had declared the partner. The taxpayer actually got good value for money out of this.

Oh yes, the judgement is poor, but I still do not accept his actions were a deliberate misuse of the system for profit. There were other factors at play, like him trying to hide his sexuality. The Telegraph has had this for months and obviously did not consider it scandalous enough at the time to release.

Dear God, we are not even a month into the close-season. Football can not return quick enough.

Laws used the apartment as his second home in London, which most MPs do need and anyone who says they don't need a second home is a fool. He fell in Love with his Landlord, it's not his fault, but at the same time it doesn't mean Laws should have to stop paying him for the rent. The amount claimed is quite small compared to other MPs, and if you look at this carefully, it's clear Laws has been stupid(but for understandable reasons), not malicious.

To be honest, I bet the £40,000 over several years was a lot less than would have been claimed if he had had other arrangements. However, at the same time, I understand why the rules are what they are, it could lead to a lot of abuse if they were not that way. In addition though, it's clear that David Laws wasn't doing this in a dishonest way, but it is very sad really because David Laws will be extremely good in this government for the country.

Alistair Campbell is an important figure, and probably one that isn't going to go on and be available at any time and he was booked up weeks in advance probably as well. What the Tory's have done is petulant and stupid.

No, the conservatives 'bottled it', if anyone. The BBC decides who comes on their shows and they quite clearly didn't bow to this obvious attempt at interference in our national broadcaster. It's a disgrace really they didn't show. And anyone saying Alistair Campbell is not an important figure within the Labour party and our history is a fool. Like it or loath it, he was one of the founding fathers of New Labour along with Brown, Blair and Mandelson and co, and he continued to play a heavy role in it. And whether you like it or not, New Labour has defined our system for the last 13 years.

We should all be deported. Immediately.

I have no idea to be honest, but it must be quite a hard test as citizenship tests go... Here's the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8707152.stm Some countries have 100% pass rates!

To be honest, I don't think it is that tough and I reckon it would be quite easily passable with a bit of concentrated to the point revision. The issue I have with it is the questions aren't really relevant to what they are meant to be, helping people integrate into the UK! And I guess the idea is to be a good citizen, you must know all of this; clearly most people don't.

So, with the news that a 1/3 of applicants fail our citizenship test(among the highest rates in the world), I decided to seek out a mock one to see if I myself as an automatic citizen could pass this test. http://www.ukcitizenshiptest.co.uk/ Here's the mock, have a go and see how you do. I failed. Does this mean I get kicked out?

Mmmmmmmmmm, but unless we radically change our system, someone like the queen is needed or the constitution will soon fall to pieces. That's the Westminster Model for you, like it or loathe, it's the way it is and unless you want a quasi-presidential system like France, then shhhhh shhhh.

Exactly, you need the local control to make sure schools stay on the beat and relevant. If you are trying to run them all from Whitehall it's just not going to work. Add to this the fact that the Tories want to only make the best schools academies, it looks like a typical Tory policy, once again forgetting the most vulnerable people and only serving those who already have it the best.

I also don't like the idea that all schools could under this be run for profit and have to produce business reports and stuff. A school is a place of learning, not a profit making machine. We should not be playing business with children's education.

I don't really like the idea of them anyway, but at least when Labour did it, it was for the worst schools and to an extent it did help them. The Tories now want to do it for effectively only the best schools. What an awful idea, it'll just create a two tiered system as the best schools just suck up all the resources in sight. Not only this, but it appears that all the schools will be directly answerable to the Education department rather than local authorities. It's a bit worrying the amount of control this will give Michael Gove.

I think some people are being very unfair on this charity. I can imagine it would be pretty hard on the child of a man or woman who has murdered someone or another crime and so has been put away. It's not like they are going to fully understand how to feel and how to act. They would need support. Just because, the father or mother is guilty, doesn't mean the rest of the family is.

Did she not suncream him up?!

I loved the fact that in the BBC news report on it, you could hear Blackpool fans singing 'Who are we?!'.

Now, everyone who is entering seems to have entered, I think it's Diane Abbott all the way!