I'm not sure I'm entirely persuaded by this idea, but here's an ingenious contribution to the debate about what to do with MPs' second home allowances.
It comes from Ian McCord, a Conservative councillor in South Northamptonshire, who has come up with the proposal and set up this petition on the Number Ten website to promote it.
He says that the MPs' second home allowance should be abolished and that the accommodation being built for athletes in the 2012 Olympic Village in east London should be converted (presumably after the Olympics?) into living accommodation for MPs with constituencies to which they cannot commute.
Cllr McCord makes the point that the apartments in the Olympic Village will doubtless be subject to the most stringent of security - which would obviously be a particular consideration if all MPs are being housed in the same place.
I remember meeting a Swedish MP a few years ago who said that this was exactly what happened in Stockholm: all the MPs had access to rooms in a university-style hall of residence in the city. Apparently the late-night parties on the roof terrace were riotous!
