British politics has been rocked by a scandal that is set to change the nation's governance for years to come.
Westminster MPs have claimed thousands of pounds in taxpayer expenses for everything from cleaning the moat and building a floating "duck island" on a pond, to hiring porn movies. A dozen politicians have lost their jobs or announced early retirements, and more are expected to follow.
The rorts have caused public outrage: polls show a growing insistence that the Prime Minister call an early election so voters can pass their own judgment on their so-called representatives.
The biggest casualty so far has been the resignation of Labour-appointed Speaker Michael Martin. The first Speaker to resign in 300 years, he had been blamed for creating the climate of expenses excess, then overseeing an attempted cover-up.
Sir Paul Beresford, a former New Zealand dentist (named "the 34th most influential dentist in Britain" last year) continued to run his dentist practice while he was a Conservative MP, claiming three-quarters of the property's running costs as a Parliamentary expense.
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