The talk of the town

During the past fortnight, I've been following the expenses debacle, so vividly outlined in the Daily Telegraph each day. Fascinating stuff. When I first entered the House of Commons in 1979, a Member of Parliament was paid £4,000 a year and there were no expenses. In fact the late Enoch Powell was against MPs being paid at all, and protested wildly when Sir Gerald Nabarro demanded 2½p a mile as a petrol allowance for members going to and fro between the House and their constituencies. I'm not sure how all this is going to pan out, although I am fairly certain there'll be a lot of people sitting on the back benches next year who until now hadn't considered a career in the House of Commons. It will be interesting to find out if they're any more saintly, or any better at doing the job.