For £4000 I'll come for two days and teach these people how to select companies who will deliver what they want for free to any address within 12 hours. Courtesy of the internet and yellow pages. And of course that is a ONE OFF charge not an annual one and also tax-deductible. Please feel free to give my email to Michael Martin and his lovely wife and anybody else who thinks they might learn the ways of the 21st century!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jonathan T-M, Malta,

They've never heard of Ocado, I suppose.

Donna Walker, Effingham, Surrey

40 pounds a week? She's obviously not trying hard enough.
With frugality like this from his wife he is surely disqualifying himself from a future job in the EU in Brussels.

GJB, Slough, Berkshire

She heard that the UK is the place where all dreams can come true so she took a chance to see if that is true...

Bess, Uppsala, Sweden

oh come on, lighten up a bit. I don't have much patience with our masters, but really it's a none story. I take it you read the bit about Mr Speaker's household expenses being pretty low. Maybe his missus is a bit too ready to think she needs a taxi to go and get the groceries, but it's hardly running off with the crown jewels. Sounds to me like a few MPs who don't like him much (understandable that one , can't say I like him much myself), seeing an opportunity to stick the knife in - I'd like to have a look at their expenses claims

Fred, oxford, england

When I worked for a living,I had to account for every last penny on my expense sheet at the end of the month. It sickens me when I hear of the expenses these MPs and thier spouses can claim,particularly when the economy is going through unsettled times with negative growth for the last two quarters,a balance of payments deficit in excess of £20bn with a distinct possibility of reaching £30bn by the end of 2008. I believe they have just awarded themselves a 10% pay increase,which I have no doubt will entitle them to a fatter pension and what is UK plc getting out of it? Nothing.

S.L.Green, Colchester, UK.

poltics is full of corruption in this country. i suggest a new house of commons. all mps have to be avilable by video link. they dont need two houses first of all. i also sufggest doubling the number of mps and halfing the wages. this would allow greater represenatation.
funding poltical parties is imple. they get paid if they get a vote. from the elctroate. the re funding is direclty proportional to number of votes and they have manage within that budget set. if they go bankrupt then file for a new election....

amit hindocha, leicester, uk

Whats the problem? Nearly all MPs do it in their own way. They are always sorry when they are found out. Sorry not because they did, but because they are found out.

John, Leeds , uk

Christ, if just getting to the shops cost us all over £1,000/year, I wonder what the shopping bill came to.

I entertain foreign visitors and when I go to the shops, I usually go on my bike - can I claim for that?

SteveH, London, UK

To all those small business owners doing end of year tax returns, putting together all their receipts knowing tax inspectors are paid bonuses to spot anything that could be excluded as cost or added to the tax bill - get the feeling it's one rule for hard working people and another for Labour Party Cronies?

Not quite Animal Farm yet, but give them more time...

James, Salisbury, UK

And how come Cherie Blair got a government car and driver - no previous PM's wife did. And the head of the NAO used to fly his wife out to the Windies first class on our taxes. They are all at it.

Jeremy Poynton, Fromeville, 51st State

Please grow up

C Richards, Bristol,

What's the bill for the Olympics? The NHS computer system? The Iraq war? ID cards? Northern Rock? Titanic prisons?

As far as I'm concerned Mrs Martin can go round and round Parliament Square in a taxi from now to the end of the century and it won't matter a fart.

Bob Doney, Camberley,