»Ministers and MPs were claiming thousands of pounds on taxis as part of £5.9m in expenses for travel

»The Thatcher Government concocted a plan to search for the Loch Ness monster using a team of dolphins

»Foreign diplomats – who have diplomatic immunity – were accused of rapes, sexual assaults, child abuse and murders while working in Britain

»The Government agreed a £1.5m bailout of one of the most troubled schools in its flagship city academies programme ten days before the 2005 general election

»People charged with certain criminal offences in Warwickshire are 30 per cent more likely to be convicted than those in Bedfordshire. The figures showed huge variations in performance of the Crown Prosecution Service

»Politicians are spending £2.2bn a year of taxpayers’ money on private management consultants

»Ted Heath was once offered concert work by Idi Amin of Uganda. The eccentric dictator made his offer in a 1977 telegram

»Ian Huntley was officially “eliminated” as a suspect six days into the investigation into the Soham murders

»Thousands of women are getting breast enlargements, tummy-tucks and nose jobs on the NHS

»Tax inspectors are routinely offered bonuses to encourage them to collect as much money as possible

»Weapons used by paratroopers on Bloody Sunday have ended up in the hands of the army in Sierra Leone, paramilitary police in Beirut and even in an Arkansas gun shop

»Tony Blair spent nearly £2,000 of taxpayers' money on cosmetics over six years