Some Legg letters are still unopened

What is the definition of “cool” in the House of Commons? I think it must be the 20 or so MPs who have yet to pick up their envelope from Sir Thomas Legg.

An MP informant spotted them and tells me they are sitting in a cardboard box, unloved, uncollected.

There’s still plenty of anger in the Commons, though it only surfaced in Prime Minister’s Question Time for a second or two when MPs muttered angrily as Nick Clegg got to his feet (he’s called for Legg to go wider and tougher and isn’t flavour of the month in there).

There is rampant confusion too. Why has Legg gone for the low-hanging fruit of cleaning and gardening bills penalising, as one MP said, “the least offenders”?

He appears to have worked on the basis that he needed to claw back some money and the lack of control the Fees Office had on those bills in particular made them ripe for re-examination. And the “worst offenders”, as some think Legg himself seems to see it (item 25, on page 7) – those who paid relations or associates for their property – are they getting off without any payment at all?

It seems that Legg may in some cases have asked these individuals for more information. He may be deferring to an inquiry by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in a case or two.

Their pain is not over just because there is not a number with a pound sign next to it in their letter.

The other confusion is the still unresolved question of what happens to the non-payers?

The Members’ Estimates Committee which commissioned the Legg audit has yet to work out what happens to the dissidents. And there is plenty of sympathy for some of them.

Related: Legg ‘damns MPs as criminals’ but how many will revolt?
Expenses: MPs await letters from Legg