However some criticisms of the system could be easily and fairly made by a reasonable man.

First, though, let's examine what the rules say MPs are entitled to claim.

That's not as easy as it sounds, even with the Internet at your elbow.

Information is confusing and conflicting, depending on where you look and the political persuasion of the site.

An MP, such as our own Henry Bellingham, will receive a salary of £61,800 a year from November 1 (including the recently-approved 2.5 per cent pay rise). It's not a fantastic amount, although it is a lot more than I earn, but I'm not doing the important business of Parliament.

MPs will quickly point out that it's not as much as many with comparable responsibilities are paid. A quick search of the Internet reveals that top earners are company directors and chief executives, followed by doctors, city brokers and then MPs. Journalists are way down the list.

But then, of course, MPs have their expenses, including the now infamous John Lewis List.

The Government's own website declares that MPs who do not have their main home in London can claim an Additional Costs Allowance of up to £24,006.

This amount is to reimburse MPs for staying in London when their main home is elsewhere (in their constituency, for example.

Confusingly this allowance is also called the second-home allowance and includes the so-called John Lewis list.

The John Lewis list is a guide to how much MPs can claim to furnish their second home.

The list is extensive and includes such things as the cost of an air conditioning unit up to £299.99, a £1,000 bed, a bookcase/cabinet up to £500, carpet at £35 per square metre, a dining table up to £600, a £375 dishwasher, fridge/freezer combi for £550, gas cooker up to £650, hi-fi/stereo at £750, installation of new bathroom up to £6,335.00, maximum of £10,000 for installation of new kitchen, recordable DVD for £270, £300 rugs, suite of furniture at £2,000, TV for £750, wardrobe £700, washing machine £350.

Dry cleaning is allowable within reasonable limits, but personal items such as hairdryers or hairstylers, shavers, toothbrushes, toiletries and bathrobes are not allowed.

MPs can claim mortgage interest against the second home where his/her name appears on the mortgage.

Basic garden maintenance is allowed, but plants, shrubs, flowers, hanging baskets or other decorations etc are not.

Some might think all of this seems very generous.

It has to be accepted that, in order for government to work, MPs will need help to stay in London.

The difficulty I have with all this is that they have public cash to live in the city in order to fulfill their duties, but when their duties are done, and they are no longer MPs, they retain ownership (and I'm thinking of valuable property here) which they have had huge assistance to buy, which they can sell and pocket the profit.

I get a company car in order to do my job, but it never belongs to me. When I go that car goes back to the company.

MPs are also allowed to claim Incidental Expenses Provision, mainly to rent a constituency office and equip it, up to £22,193 in 2006/7, plus a maximum staffing allowance of £100,205.

Again, this is perfectly reasonable. MPs need to run an office and it has to be equipped and staffed. They leave themselves open to criticism, however, when they employ members of their own family as staff – often their wives and, in some notable recent cases, their sons. This keeps the cash in the family and doesn't look good.

I should point out that although many MPs do employ family members, Henry does not.

Members can also claim up to £10,400 a year for communication, such as leaflets and adverts.

There are then a number of travelling allowances available, including travelling allowances payable for staff.

Bizarrely MPs can claim 20p a mile for travelling by bicycle, but only 4p per mile more for riding a motorbike.

MPs contribute ten per cent of their salary to receive a final salary pension of around £30,000 a year for 20 years' service.

Defeated or retiring members receive a "winding-up allowance" of up to £40,799 to cover the reimbursement of the cost of any work necessary, including staff and office costs, to conclude their parliamentary business after the date on which they cease to be MPs.

Perhaps the aspect of all this most open to criticism is that MPs themselves vote on what their salaries, expenses/allowances and pensions should be.

Granted, they are, on the whole, sensible people, but it is about time a truly independent panel set these amounts.

So, what's to be done about the issue of cash for accommodation which MPs retain ownership of when they stop being MPs?

The House does not sit into the early hours any more, so one argument could be that many MPs could commute. I know several people who face a daily commute to London and back of around 200 miles. They cannot afford to keep a second home close to whether they work. In fact they cannot even afford to live close to where they work, so commuting to their home in an area of the country where property is not so expensive is the only option.

Not all MPs could do that, some travelling from the extremities.
The answer here could be to have accommodation provided – a kind of halls of residence for MPs.

Or they could still have their "own" homes, but return the value, or the profit made, on these homes to the state when they stop doing the job.

Henry is convinced that increasing transparency (all MPs' expenses published from October) will police the system. He voted against a bigger pay increase, but also voted against stricter expenses rules.
He was opposed to the cost – put by some at £1,200 a day for auditors – and felt the electorate would soon let their views be known if it was revealed that their MP was being extravagant.

He said: "A minority of MPs abuse the system. Greater transparency will be the biggest driver for commonsense."

One allowance Henry is opposed to is the £10,400 communications allowance, which he said was introduced by Labour to help MPs save their seats.

If you want to find out how much your MP has claimed in expenses since 2001/2 go to www.theyworkforyou.com and click on your MP's name.

This site will also give their expenses ranking among all MPs for the different categories of allowance.

It also contains all sorts of other interesting information, including their activity and interests in and out of parliament and how they have voted on recent crucial issues.