Things better left unsaid.

Just what has been gained by the publication of the so-called "John Lewis List", which details how much MPs are allowed to claim for furnishing their London pied-a-terre? Much has been made of the fact that, up until now, the list has been "secret", as though this was some sort of scam the MPs were pulling, but the fact is that the main people from whom it has been kept secret were the MPs themselves. Let's face it - if you knew that you could claim up to £10,000 for a kitchen, the temptation would be to go out and order a £10,000 kitchen, wouldn't it - whereas otherwise you might have been content to go for one for perhaps half that. So there were good reasons for keeping the details of the allowances secret, and other than giving the tabloids something to fulminate about, nothing has been served by revealing the detail. Just who was it who made the application under the Freedom of Information Act, anyway?