So the Brits have landed themselves with a hung parliament. Excellent. Maybe those commentators who heaped derision on New Zealand in 1996 will remember their words. The probably won't, but it's gratifying all the same.

Few things annoy MPs more than the media poking its nose into their expenses, and there are few issues with so many grey areas to poke into.

'Bad boys, bad boys, what 'ya gonna do? What ya gonna do when they come for you?'

That is the well known reggae-style theme to the popular reality trash TV show 'Cops'. Perhaps it could be better applied to our current Parliament where bad boy behaviour has come to the fore again lately.

One sure thing that will come from the uproar over MPs expenses is that none of them are likely to criticise beneficiaries in the foreseeable future.

Wellington, June 19 NZPA - Six new MPs will visit Britain to learn about parliamentary practice and procedure in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, Speaker Lockwood Smith said today.

Today, as Gordon Brown awakes in 10 Downing Street, he must be thinking of why he took on the job of British Prime Minister just on two years ago. Brown's head must be spinning and the thought must be racing around in his mind that 'why was I so keen to do it in the first place?'

Wellington, June 3 NZPA - A simple ruling by Parliament's Speaker could open MPs' expenses to public scrutiny, says ACT leader Rodney Hide.

Wellington, June 3 NZPA - A special cross-party committee of MPs is expected to meet before the end of the week to discuss the transparency around the reporting of parliamentary expenses.

It's truly been a week for pigs, both of the genuine swine variety and of the human political one.