What's more shameful - to be accused of smoking cannabis as a schoolboy or a £52,000-a-year politician charging the taxpayer for a toothbrush?

Tory leader David Cameron may have been slightly embarrassed by claims that he had taken cannabis as a 15-year-old, though it has to be said the public was completely indifferent.

But there should be no indifference towards MSPs like Glasgow Green Patrick Harvie, Health Minister Andy Kerr, his deputy Lewis Macdonald, Labour's Marlyn Glen, the SNP's Christine Grahame, Solidarity's Rosemary Byrne and Conservative Magaret Mitchell, who should be deeply ashamed at their latest attempt to rip off the taxpayer.

These people are among Scotland's top earners.

MSPs get around £52,000 year and the same again in expenses.

Ministers like Kerr get over £90,000.

But Harvie wanted £30 to hire a cement mixer for a party stunt, Kerr asked for £315 to repair a wall at his Edinburgh home, Byrne sought £170 for a pair of glasses, Grahame £1.98 for an umbrella, Glen £1.50 for a toothbrush, Macdonald £28 for whisky he donated as a raffle prize and Mitchell £70 for wine.

Thankfully, one clerk in Holyrood did her job and decided to knock them back.

But all these tribunes of the people believed the taxpayer should have paid up and only when challenged realised their mistake - aye right.

After the humiliation of former Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie over his taxi claims, they're either stupid or arrogant - or both.

And yet these are the people who want people paid a great deal less than they are to turn out and vote them back into Parliament - well which of this greedy lot would volunteer to get off the gravy train?

THE expenses experts mentioned aren't the only ones who have failed to learn the lessons of recent history.

Just last week First Minister Jack McConnell took a hammering for flying to London days after pledging to chop the number of shorthaul flights he takes.

So what does Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen do? He flies to London to join the luvvies at the Bafta awards - just days after he said he wanted all Ministers to stop flying to England "in all but the most exceptional circumstances".

Can there be a more blatant case of a politician saying one thing and doing another?

And this is the man LibDems claim will seek the job of First Minister as the price of a coalition deal after the election.

At least there's no airport in Aviemore, where the LibDems are holding a conference this weekend, so the worst he can be accused of is travelling by car.

LIKE most MSPs, Tommy Sheridan is on the lookout for vote-winners which will ensure his Holyrood pay for another four-year term.

He's seeking issues where people will line up behind him, such as his Bill to ban airguns and getting troops out of Iraq.

They're likely to be worth a few votes in Glasgow - unlike some of the others in his scattergun approach.

Other motions he tabled this week include calls for Solidarity with Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the US officer who refused to go to Iraq; Solidarity with Cuba against the Hilton hotel group; Justice for the Shrewsbury 24, a group of building workers charged with conspiracy in 1972; and support for the Socialist Republic of Venezuela.

Unfortunately, people in those countries don't have a say in the Scottish Parliament elections, otherwise he might do rather well.