A few years ago I lunched with a clutch of political correspondents from other newspapers. After we had paid, a couple of the writers requested blank receipts from the waiter for use in fiddling their expenses claims. I now read their censorious accounts of MPs' expenses scams with wry amusement.

It is a cliché that some old school hacks devoted greater energy to defrauding their employers than to reporting and writing articles, but one that rings true for me. One magazine scribe I knew claimed £1,200 for "cups of tea and so forth" during a US trip. FT legend has it that a reporter in Asia once hired the top two suites of a luxury hotel, in case he secured an interview with the president - and rented a helicopter to keep an eye on developments.