Does the whole system need root and branch reform?

Legal sources I have spoken to tell me there could be a case to answer under both the fraud act (over the specific claim) and under the theft act.

If it came to it, there’s a real danger that the Metropolitan Police may be put off investigating former Labour minister Elliot Morley by the chaotic scenes that surrounded the arrest of Damien Green MP (Tory frontbencher).

Morley’s misdemeanour has been followed by the discovery by David Cameron’s office that the MP husband and wife Andrew MacKay and Julie Kirkbride had each claimed for different second homes. Mr MacKay, needless to say, blamed not himself but the fees office for suggesting he did it.

The scandal begs to have the whole parliamentary system investigated. And I’m still concerned that nothing has yet been said of any substance about the scale of abuse in the House of Lords.

The idea that the speaker has never been removed other than by beheading, and in any case not since 1690, is one part of the increasing sense of laughing stock that this extraordinarily serious situation is presenting.

The other is spectre of committee after committee after committee, apparently investigating all these abuses. Cameron has been looking more fleet of foot and more decisive. When it comes to feet, Gordon Brown has been looking more leaden.

The Labour local and European election launch today appeared to be all but farce, people like Hazel Blears (communities secretary in the Cabinet) surfacing for the first time since she admitted not only flipping her properties to maximum effect, but also failing to pay capital gains tax. So far as I could tell, she was not seriously tackled.

And I would point you to the excellent comment below. A nifty piece of research.