IT was hardly surprising that the European Parliament threw out a vote to slash the ludicrously lavish expenses of MEPs -- that anonymous species who apparently have the arduous task of spending most of their lives travelling between the countries of Europe and Brussels.

The Eurocrats themselves were responsible for the voting procedure and commendably local MEPs Mike Hindley and Mark Hendrick voted in favour of replacing the flat-rate allowance with a simple system of reimbursing the actual amount spent.

But, almost inevitably, the majority decided to keep the gravy train chugging along, spewing out pound after pound.

I mean, who in the right mind would effectively vote themselves a pay cut of thousands of pounds a year.

Mind you, in future some MEPs will be able to claim "hardship" payments of up to £350 a journey made between their constituencies and European Parliament meetings.

"Hardship" presumably refers to the traumatic wait in the airport lounge, the stamina-sapping walk through the departure lounge and the regular intake of in-flight culinary fare.

Or maybe it's just the fact that the flight is not long enough for those overworked souls to relax and watch the latest blockbuster movie.

It's a hard life.

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