AN inquiry into spin doctor Jo Moore's infamous September 11 e-mail was published on Tuesday - at the exact moment a US shell tore through a hotel housing Western journalists in Iraq.

Ms Moore was - after a lengthy and complicated scandal - fired for trying to "bury bad news" beneath the rubble of New York's Twin Towers.

There is a grim irony the report into her downfall was itself lost amid yet another tragedy - the loss of life and limb at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel.

But there was a black-humoured irony, too. The "bad news" Ms Moore had been trying to conceal was a new set of guidelines on the expenses claimed by local councillors.

Guess what appeared this week, during the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and Gordon Brown's record seventh budget? A new set of guidelines on council expenses. I am not suggesting the Government was falling back into bad old habits.

Ministers and special advisers have learnt from the fall of Ms Moore and her political master, Stephen Byers. But if not bad news, the guidelines certainly offered something of the ridiculous. From May 1 allowances will be paid out to council members who use "non-motorised" forms of transport to get to meetings, as well those who drive, or catch the bus or train.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said these included... a push scooter or a skateboard.

The change is to allow cycling councillors to recoup the cost of wear and tear. But it left the door open to almost anything without an engine.

The ODPM's press office said - through slightly gritted teeth: "If a councillor uses a skateboard or a scooter to get to meetings, and they are claiming wear and tear, they will be included in the allowance scheme.

"This is designed to reflect the world we now live in and the fact that more people now cycle, or use other less traditional forms of transport."

Those who did dig out the Jo Moore inquiry discovered a call for the screw to be tightened on special advisers, if not how they travel to work.

(Ms Moore was - at the height of the scandal - frequently pictured on a bicycle. She will qualify for expenses if she joins her local council rather than, as is rumoured, trains to become a teacher).

The Committee on Standards in Public Life said that each minister should take personal responsibility for the conduct of his or her special advisers from now on.

Sir Nigel Wicks, who chaired the investigation, also argued that had the recommendations been in place two years ago events might have been "settled more easily".

And he suggested Parliament should have greater power to give special advisers a grilling.

Sir Nigel said: "At a time of considerable change within government and in the environment in which government operates, we believe that it is vital for there to be clarity about the boundaries within the executive and security about their maintenance."

Finally, he made the brave suggestion the power wielded by Alastair Campbell should be curbed.

Mr Campbell, who runs the London Marathon on Sunday, frequently jogs to work. Rumours repeatedly linked him to a career in frontline politics. But it's hard to see him working his way up the hard way, heading out for a council meeting on a scooter.

- Parliament breaks for the Easter recess on Monday. James Slack returns on May 2.

Updated: 10:43 Friday, April 11, 2003