Blogs take expenses initiative

Guido is having a whip around to pay for the computer disks which hold scans of MPs expense-claim receipts.

He’s characteristically critical that papers have yet to buy them and print them.

Guido Writes: The Sun (as well as The Times) has been offered the disks, but are worried about handling “stolen” goods.

Sources at the Mail on Sunday and News of the World say that have not been offered the scans and would in any case have to consider legal obstacles.

Meanwhile in a comment Scary Biscuits makes the point: Are you sure these disks actually exist? Why haven’t they been offered to MoS or the the Screws?

Why are Murdoch journos, famous for reproducing government spin, saying they have been offered them? Why is a story of a mole hunt replacing the real story of corruptions by MPs?

I certainly wouldn’t put it past the spin machine to have engineered the mole story – at the beginning it really did feel like a distraction.

Either way the receipts are going to be released for free to everyone in a few months anyway.

Anyone looking to buy them up beforehand, and if I had the money to pay for them I would, is involved in a traditional hack fight for the exclusive and nothing more.