Thousands of people are losing their jobs on an almost daily basis and many more are being evicted from their homes as the economic crisis worsens, yet our Members of Parliament – or at least some of them – are still on the gravy train, picking up untold riches as they trundle along.

There now emanates from Westminster a noxious perception that Parliamentarians are living off the fat of the land, treating taxpayers' hard-earned money in a cavalier and irresponsible manner.

No wonder they are moving heaven and Earth to keep under wraps the way public money is being spent on their own personal comforts. Long gone are the days when, for every MP, the job was considered as a form of service, a vocation, where the acquisition of wealth and creature comforts did not even arise.

The latest scandal is the way the Speaker Michael Martin has acted to block the release of information about MPs' foreign trips, and the thousands upon thousands of pounds spent on what in some cases may be genuine fact-finding missions but what in other cases are no more than jollies.

It matters not whether the trips are legitimate or otherwise: British taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent and Parliament has a duty to tell them.

The scandal is that MPs pass the Freedom of Information Act and then try all sorts of wheezes to wangle their way round it for their own purposes. And now there are reports, which have not been denied, that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is claiming more than £116,000 in expenses for a second home in her Midlands constituency even though she is effectively lodging at her sister's home in London.

Miss Smith is breaking no rules. She is abiding by the book. But isn't there a little bird whispering in her ear that, by all the laws of decency, this is not right? Isn't her conscience giving her a hard time? Isn't it all what some people might describe as greed? The wages paid to Cabinet Ministers are well over the national average – and rightly so. But this should not give them licence to milk the system to its utmost limits.

Somebody should get hold of that expenses rulebook and perform a hatchet job on it, to prevent what many people see as the abuse of public money. I don't hold out much hope. Every time the media properly probe this scandal, the Speaker, and others, slam the door in their faces. I think we are looking in vain for an overhaul of the system. Even so, MPs should be hounded until perhaps something is put right.