Brown says sorry.

Gordon Brown has just apologised, quite genuinely it seems to me, on behalf of all political parties for the scandalous state of the Commons allowances and expenses system.

It's a start, I guess. I've been so busy writing about the story in the Herald that there has been no time to blog . The Commons are preparing to get external auditors in to handle expenses claims from now on.

Mr Speaker is considering publishing all expenses as soon as possible but I hear that only 400 MPs have had copies of their receipts so far and that many will not have completed the editing process.

The cabinet meet for a political session tomorrow, to try an sort out a way forward. All parties have been shamed by the expenses revelations but Labour will suffer most, as a series of polls over the next few days will show.