Wednesday 11 April 2007

A tale of two stories

This little nugget from the Telegraph should start us off nicely. Whats the truth?

Huhne trained at little expense

Publication date: 4 April 2007
Source: The Daily Telegraph
(c) 2007 Telegraph Group Limited, London

It's been six weeks since the publication of MPs' travel expenses, but Spy has discovered something of a discrepancy in the justifications for spending so little on rail travel being given by Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman.

In 2005-06, Huhne, the MP for Eastleigh, claimed pounds 3,284 for travel to and from London in his car (a Toyota Prius, admittedly), but reclaimed a mere pounds 176 in rail tickets. On Radio 4's Any Questions in February, he justified the low rail claim thus: "I'm afraid I managed to lose my rail charge card, or actually it was stolen . . . and I didn't then charge back the subsequent rail travel.''

But in his local paper, the Southern Daily Echo, Huhne offered a rather different story. "I don't always claim back the expenses from rail travel as I travel second class, which is quite cheap,'' he said, making no mention of the stolen card.

So which version is true? "Well it's both,'' he told Spy, "but I don't want to bother going into long explanations because it just sounds lame. You've got me on a train as we speak.''

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