How are you perceived?

Part of being a politician is being in the public eye. British politicians have been fighting to keep their expenses claims private recently. What most people will remember is that they went to court to keep information private. Part of that information was the address of their second home. Unfortunately that is not what people will remember.

Instead they will remember that MPs were forced kicking and screaming to reveal information about how they spend their allowances. Allowances are important to them and they do incur real expenses in going back and forth to their constituencies.

Now, however, the perception is that a number of MPs are desparately trying to cover up the fact that they were slack with their claims and perhaps claimed marginal or inappropriate expenses. Why would they risk their careers over such relatively small amounts of money? What does it say about the integrity of these people that they are spending our tax money in court to protect their secrets?