Today's decision by Gordon Brown to withdraw government proposals to exempt MPs' expenses from the Freedom of Information Act is both sensible and timely.
The plans – even if they originally did have the backing of both Labour and the Tory backbench committees – should never have been tabled in the first place.
Parliament has an appalling record in trying to cover up details of how MPs use taxpayers' money to furnish their second homes, details of their travel arrangements and the costs of their offices.
Let's hope neither David Cameron nor Brown come to an agreement on how to restrict FoI over MPs' spending ever again – even though the Conservative leader's office was saying yesterday they never had.
Two groups also come out well over this. The creators of the non-partisan websites TheyWorkForYou.com and WriteToThem.com organised a Facebook campaign against the proposals that attracted more than 6,000 members and led to people emailing their MPs in protest.
Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats also come out well – they opposed it from the beginning and did not enter into any talks with the government over exempting MPs from FoI.
