He is taking the Michael.

Byline: George Galloway

ONE of the most virulent of the media witch-hunters is Michael Crick, the Robespierre of Newsnight.

You'd struggle not to laugh then at his own pickle at the weekend.

Mr Crick turns out not just to be a rat but a love-rat and one who cheated on his missus when she'd just had his baby. And then ditched his mistress who was later diagnosed with breast cancer.

You couldn't make it up. Nor that his lawyers tried to stop the media revelations on the grounds that their investigations were a breach of privacy.

It's time for a register where every politician lists every penny they earn.

And every penny they receive from the taxpayer in expenses and how and on whom they use it.

I, for example list all my earnings voluntarily while, say, a barrister may list merely "in private practice at the bar" without a clue as to whether they're up to their knees in Legal Aid or earning pounds 1000 or pounds 1million a year while practicing.

But all the journalists covering parliament should be on it too - what they earn, what their expense claims are, every taxi and mobile bill claimed back, every lunch with "contacts" who may or may not be young pouters in kinky boots.

Come on Mr Crick, surely you'll join me, we could be first on the list?

CAPTION(S):

IN A PICKLE: Michael

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Title Annotation:	Features
Publication:	Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)
Date:	Feb 25, 2008
Words:	235
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