How refreshing! A clean, old-fashioned expenses scandal

It was good to see parliamentary expenses back at the top of the news agenda over last weekend. I think we were all getting a little nonced out, so to speak. To judge from the number of lawsuits now filed against the BBC, and also the supposed list of people due to be picked up by the police, it would seem that almost everybody who works in television was guilty, at some time or another, of sexually abusing some innocent civilian. It is surely only a matter of time before we see the headline: ‘Police to interview Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and, of course, Grubb.’ In a strange sort of way the story loses a little of its potency as a consequence; it is less of a shock to find that, say, Leonard Rossiter once got up to no good in a dressing room 40 years ago when you know that the bloke who played Larry the Lamb was hanging out in the gents with the kiddies at the same time.

They were all at it, whatever ‘it’ is supposed to be and, oddly enough, the commentariat is beginning to split on ideological lines as to what to make of it all. This is the first sign that a story is being absorbed and digested in a normal manner, rather than merely staggering us all with its revelations — the old ‘CFM!’ designation (itself a profane forerunner of OMG), as Fleet Street used to describe a sensational gobbet of news. In a sense, the more widespread a thing becomes, so the more diluted its impact, partly because there are too many people upon whom we wish to focus our death rays of hate, loathing and retribution.