THERE was always a fallacy about the Parliamentary expenses scandal that somehow it would lead to your tax bill being cut.

For all the sharp practice and, in a few cases, downright thieving that was exposed, there was always the suspicion that the bill would not go down.

And here we are. Three years on and the total claimed is over that 2010 level.

We are fortunate here in Oxfordshire our representatives never took liberties to excess like others did and their expenses remain legitimate.

But while the expenses all the country’s MPs claim may have changed, the cost was never going to.