Where Our Money Goes (4)

More details of EU spending have emerged, for instance:

*   £72,000 for a trip to the Italian Alps for the children of MEPs and officials (£72,000!! Did they stay in a five-star hotel?   How can this possibly be justified?)

*   £8 million - the budget for Europarl TV, the European parliament's online TV channel, which broadcasts live parliamentary events and debates, and is little more than EU propaganda (and I don't suppose anyone watches it anyway).

*   £2.4 million for a renovation of the parliament sports centre.

It was also disclosed that in 2008 47,781 days were lost to sick leave, an average of 8 for every one of the EU parliament's 6,000 workers.

The total budget for the European Parliament is £1.3 billion, a great deal of which is squandered on unnecessary luxuries, perks and self-promotion.   Some MEPs, in particular the brave souls of UKIP, do their best to rein in the extravagance, or at least bring it to our attention, but, as we all know, there is little we can do about it.