As lots of people know, outgoing MPs are entitled to claim various "winding up" costs as part of the process of finalising their administrative affairs. And likewise, new MPs can claim "start up" costs for setting up new offices.

In the Swansea East constituency, outgoing Labour MP, Sian James was standing down after 10 years. Her winding up costs included exactly £3.5K for office redecoration - carpets/painting/cleaning - and also £3K for "Office make good dilapidations", with a note it was to "put office back to original" whatever that meant. It may be this latter figure was something required by her landlord for the premises under a dilapidations clause on termination or assignment of her lease for the office building. She was paying £8,500 per annum to rent it.

After incurring expenditure of public money of £6.5K to basically put the building right after its use as a constituency office, I wondered what use the building was now being put to. Wonder no longer - it's now the constituency office for the newly elected MP for Swansea East, Carolyn Harris. Carolyn should be well familiar with what was wrong with the old set up, as she worked there as Office Manager anyway. I'm just a bit gobsmacked that what functioned as the Swansea East local office before May 2015 needed £6.5K spent to make it function as a constituency office only weeks later. If this was private money then fair enough, though I think anyone spending their own money would have looked very closely as to whether this spend was justified.

Just to add insult, Carolyn's start up costs included office furniture such as a desk and chair, though to be fair, those office chairs don't last long with all the time they are sat in.

The sooner MPs are given offices in publicly owned buildings the better. Maybe then we can be spared the farce of them renting from their local political party as in Neath, with these "you scratch my back and I'll certainly scratch yours" arrangements that are as transparent as a lead sheet, and the situation we have just seen in Swansea East where a private landlord is clearly doing alright on the public purse. I would add that all this expenditure is of course legitimate, having been checked and paid by IPSA. But wouldn't it be better if such expenditure remained within the public sector because, after all, our MPs are public servants.

In fairness to the Swansea East brigade though - they seemingly don't drink lattes or if they do they have managed without a bloody milk frother, unlike that pretentious lot in Aberavon.