Perkbuster' slams Italian MPs

Italy's MPS, who are the highest paid in Europe, have been caught in an embarrassing expenses scandal that threatens to engulf the political classes.

As in many scandals, it is the little details that stick in the mind. During the British MPs' expenses furore, it was a Tory MP's claim for a wooden duck house; for Italians who are steadily working themselves into a fury over their MPs' expenses and salary gravy train, the piquant example concerns the parliamentary hairdressers - all nine of them - on €11,000 ($18,300) a month, each.

This example of the perks enjoyed by Italy's politicians is part of a stream of disclosures from a disgruntled former parliamentary employee, calling himself Spider Truman, on a Facebook page entitled "The secrets of the society of Montecitorio", referring to the home of the Italian Parliament.

Truman, who has been described as Italy's Julian Assange, also revealed how MPs' families and friends enjoy free flights through the parliamentary travel agency, benefit from reduced private tariffs from telephone companies, and can expect police escorts to cut a swathe through crowds when they or their families go shopping.

He has also claimed that many MPs report their computers and other expensive equipment stolen so as to claim money for replacements.

Establishment critics of the blogger note he - or she - has yet to name names, and has an axe to grind after being sacked from a parliamentary job.

The centre-left and its anti-corruption campaigners such as Antonio Di Pietro, so used to claiming the moral high ground in the face of dubious legal manoeuvres that appear designed to benefit Premier Silvio Berlusconi, has made no comment.

Within 48 hours of its opening, the Facebook page had 250,000 members, some of whom have left unprintable remarks about MPs.

- INDEPENDENT