MPs

Never let it be said that Centre for Journalism students don't get the best guests to join them in the television studio when it comes to covering the big issues of the day. For last week's news day, one MP wasn't enough for the teams tasked with producing two 15-minute news broadcasts. So they got two.

Having had to sit on the sidelines for what must have seemed like an eternity, watching daily Telegraph exclusives on MPs' expenses, The Guardian is hoping making its mark on the story with an interesting crowdsourcing experiment.

 I used to believe that for the price of a loaf of bread for every UK citizen the monarchy was worth preserving, but perhaps, as the recession continues to rip its way through our lives, people are starting to believe that the loaf of bread is more important to them than the Queen. However, this is not about the funding of the British Monarchy. This is about preserving the Royals’ sanity, or what’s left of it...

Following our visit to Westminster and the meeting with Stephen Ladyman you might like to look at this piece which Paul Francis (who will be teaching you Local Government) wrote in today's Kent Messenger. If you have been following the story it turns out that Mr Ladyman was not so keen to reveal MP's expenses!  Since then of course the Government has rapidly abandoned the proposal to block us from finding out exactly how MPs are spending their/our money.