SO soon after bringing down the EU Commission over its sleaze and cronyism, the European Parliament has shown us the level of its own integrity - by asserting its right to keep its own members' snouts in the trough.

These hypocrites chucked out a plan to end the system that allows MEPs to claim expenses at such lavish rates that they can net up to £100,000 a year on top of their wages. They even refused to provide receipts for all the expenses they claim.

With such greed being so handsomely and easily rewarded, it is no wonder that there will be the usual scramble for seats at the Euro elections next month - despite the fact that afterwards most people still won't have a clue who their MEP is.

But if voters want to be sure they are not represented by an anonymous and useless money-grubber, they would do well to ensure they are represented by no-one - by boycotting the polls if they cannot elicit a cast-iron guarantee from candidates that they will vote for root-and-branch reform to derail this disgusting gravy train.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.