Thunderbozz

The Daily Telegraph today published the expenses claims of Dartford MP Dr Howard Stoate (it's Day 26 of "The Expenses Files", a feature which increasingly resembles Big Brother / The Never-Ending Story ). Now, it would be all-too easy to use this as an opportunity to attack Dr Stoate, but it transpires that he is actually a rather fervent supporter of local businesses. After all, he spent £124 at a market stall - or, so he says, as "no receipts are available". Over £1,000 was ploughed into the town's DIY stores, including the B&Q Warehouse and Focus [Do It All] . Now, this may sound like a lot of money to spend, but fear not! Dr Stoate had the taxpayer in mind whilst he was shopping: prices in the market "were far lower than shop prices... I was trying to keep my costs as low as possible". In fact, the whole reason he needed to go to B&Q at all is because he decided to buy a London home (15 miles from the constituency) "i...