I noted earlier that the changes to the rules on MPs' second home allowances which Gordon Brown has hurriedly announced this morning are not set to apply to Northern Ireland.
This simply will not do. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, and - as David Cameron is keen to do - we should be seeking to integrate the province's MPs into the work of the UK Parliament and not give them special treatment.
It strikes me that there are two reasons why the Government does not want to link the proposed daily allowance to attendance at the House of Commons for Northern Irish MPs:
- Sinn Fein MPs who refuse to attend the House of Commons would all forfeit that allowance at a stroke;
- Secondly, the attendance at the House by the DUPs - who saved the Government's skin on the 42-day detention vote - is very patchy, since all of them are also Assembly Members at Stormont and they would therefore be unable to claim the daily attendance allowance that regularly.
Neither of these reasons is good enough to treat MPs from Northern Ireland differently. MPs from the province owe it to their constituents to do their job representing them at Westminster on a full-time basis and as such should be treated in the same way as all other English, Welsh and Scottish MPs when it comes to expenses. Simple as that.
