There’s been a lot of disappointment after the latest, official, release of MPs’ expenses.  The data has been heavily censored to hide sensitive details, but also removing a lot of the more controversial claims.  As the Daily Mash put it: “Experts stressed that by publishing a censored version of the expenses the MPs had somehow managed to achieve the impossible and made the whole thing even worse.”

There are also something like 100 000 documents currently available, so if you actually want to look through any of it then you’re in for along slog.  Unless, of course, you harness the power of crowds…

The Guardian have posted an interesting feature that lets its users browse through scanned pages of handwritten expenses claims, filtered by MP or party, and then tag that page with data about the content and its significance, and whether it’s an above-the-line claim or something that needs to be looked into by the paper’s staff.… Read more