Pay up, Darling

It looks as though my MP will shortly be getting some bad news:

SCOTTISH Secretary Alistair Darling is set for a rude awakening after it emerged that his family’s hideaway holiday home in the Outer Hebrides will become one of the first properties to be hit with a council tax levy.

But perhaps there's a way out for Alistair:

Mr Darling has strong family connections to the area through his mother, whose ancestors have links with Great Bernera. Though the council will not discuss individual cases, it is believed Mr Darling’s home is regarded as a second home.

Surely Mr Darling isn't going to get away with some "ancestral home" scam and somehow keep his council tax discount. Come on now - the guy is Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Central and works in London as Transport Secretary and also as (part time) Secretary of State for Scotland. I imagine that Mr Darling has houses in both London and Edinburgh as well as on Great Bernera - three homes in all. If "ordinary" people are to suffer loss of council tax discount so too should MPs, on their second as well as their third homes.

Of course, like all beneficiaries of the state, MPs don't actually pay any tax at all. They simple recycle back some of the income that they obtain from the actual taxpayers. Nevertheless, the new council tax rules should be rigorously applied to MPs