Seeing through expenses transparency (Heather Brooke UK)

Gordon Brown's reforms may include some much-needed changes to MPs' expenses, but they don't go far enough

Heather Brooke
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 April 2009 18.00 BST


On Saturday Gordon Brown said he had more important things to deal with than MPs' expenses.

On Tuesday morning, there was nothing more important than MPs' expenses and their immediate reform was a top priority. What had changed in that three-day time period?

Well I'd like to think a little documentary I did for Dispatches – The Westminster Gravy Train – had something to do with his sudden about-face. This film marked the culmination of my five-year battle to chisel out of MPs' grasping hands the detailed receipts of their expense claims.

You can't hope for a better result as a campaigner than to have the prime minister announce a major policy change within 48 hours of your documentary. Is this the power of television? Was Brown watching and choking on his dinner?

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