Endless saga<br />

The four members are before a magistrate, attempting to clear their names. I’m not sure if it’s more preposterous than it is shaming to claim that conventions protecting free speech apply to false accounting. If only Enron’s lawyers had been as ingenious.

In addition to Morley et al’s abuse of parliamentary privilege, Alan and Ann Keen have been fined £1,500 today, which, as Paul Waugh notes, is lenient compared to the Parliamentary Privileges and Standards Committee’s damning verdict. Expect to hear more on that decision as public anger over expenses remains unabated.

Some time ago, I thought the expenses scandal would only be resolved by the catharsis of a General Election. The campaign is already so shrill as to have widened the chasm between politics and public. Without descending into melodrama, what is needed is that those who have committed crimes receive justice.