Telegraph scoop sells papers

The Daily Telegraph sold 900,000 additional copies in the first two weeks it ran serialized reports of Parliament members' expense records, The New York Times reported. Unconfirmed reports indicate that The Telegraph paid $145,000 for the reports.

British newspapers sometimes give away CDs or DVDs in the hope that readers enticed by free copies of “Batman 26” might cast a passing glance at the headlines, too.

One newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, has reversed that approach, to spectacular effect. Instead of giving away a disk, it acquired one (or more) of them containing the expense records of members of Parliament.

As The Telegraph splashes tales of taxpayer-financed duck islands and moat-cleaning across its front pages, there is talk of a political revolution along the Thames. Some of the conventional wisdom of the news business has gone belly up, too.

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Reporter attributes Wash. roots to how she rocked Parliament

Nice bio from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Heather Brooke, who requested expense-accounts information on Parliament members five years ago. Her request set the stage for Tuesday's resignation of the speaker of the House of Commons and possibly criminal prosecutions of parliamentarians who abused their expense accounts.

If the British tabloids knew about the sex-advice column Heather Brooke wrote for the University of Washington Daily nearly two decades ago they might run with it as a salacious news item.

Something like "sex writer rocks Parliament."

But that information hasn't reached them, it seems, and Brooke has proven to an entire nation she is a journalist of another ilk. In doing so, the former Seattleite has shaken up the British parliamentary leadership and perhaps changed forever the relationship between the British press and the House of Commons.

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American reporter causes stir in British Parliament

In 2001, Heather Brooke, a 38-year-old reporter from Pennsylvania, requested details on British lawmakers' expenses, but her request was met with derision, the AP reported. She submitted her request again in 2005 with no success. Even three years later when Britain's information ombudsman ordered that lawmakers' receipts be released, the parliament speaker tried to stop publication of the data. Britain's High Court rejected the appeal and ordered the release. Although the data won't be released until July, the Telegraph obtained the information early and printed details of lawmakers charging horse manure, porn movies, housekeepers and tennis court repairs to their expense accounts.

It took a sassy American to force stuffy British lawmakers to come clean over their expenses.

Heather Brooke, a 38-year-old Pennsylvania-born reporter, has become the scourge of parliament, forcing the publication of legislators' expenses claims following a five-year legal battle that has exposed Britain's deep-rooted culture of official secrecy.

The expense bills reveal how lawmakers frittered away public money with claims for porn movies, chandeliers and housekeepers or repaired their tennis court, swimming pool or helicopter pad.

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British lawmakers expense cat food, horse manure, X-rated movies

The Daily Telegraph published examples of how British lawmakers are expensing absurd items such as horse manure, maid service, cat food, fertilizer, X-rate movies and repairs to a Chinese needlepoint rug. Rules state that British lawmakers should only file claims on public money for expenses related to parliamentary work. Itemized receipts for British lawmakers' claims on public money were long kept from the public until a FOI ruling ordered the release of about 2 million receipts in July. The Daily Telegraph obtained the records ahead of time.

It has all the makings of a Monty Python sketch - prim British lawmakers caught in a farce over expense claims for everything from X-rated movies to a bathtub plug.

But reality has come home to roost in the often absurd world of Her Majesty's Government.

Friday's leaked list of lawmaker expenses has leveled another blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's beleaguered government, which has been blamed for a litany of problems ranging from the Iraq war to the deepening recession.

More here.