Omagh UUP Councillor Ross Hussey has  welcomed the announcement from Sinn Fein that they will not be renewing their contract on their London apartment that has cost us the British taxpayer over £500000 over the past years. However Conor Murphy’s comment that ’it operated within the rules’ really is a nonsense. Several MPs from both the Labour and Conservative parties have lost their seats by making claims that ’were within the rules’ but clearly the public did not agree with the claims that were made. What has surprised me is the fact that the DUP seemed to clam up when this story hit the headlines as if as part of their joint arrangement with SF that you don’t complain about us we won’t complain about you. Sinn Fein have claimed £500000 plus over the past years for an apartment that technically must have lay empty for many weeks over the years - unless of course they were using it for something else. I have asked my own MP publicly for details of the trips he made to London to represent me and he has consistently failed to respond - at least now we will be able to see how often he goes to London by his hotel claims. Whilst on the subject of expenses can the DUP now confirm that they have introduced the system where they claim the double salary element from their MPs salaries directly to the party? I ask because following Peter Robinson’s recent statement clearly no-one had told David Simpson when he recently stated he gave his extra salary to charity groups in his constituency. Of course rather than pay the money to the party the DUP could simply not claim their additional salary and leave it in the national pot because I as a British taxpayer do not want to see my taxes used to subsidise the DUP.

Pat no longer has access to the Sinn Fein appartments in London - there’s always a B&B!!!