The secret of Churchill’s gold

Never in the course of parliamentary history has the personal honour of MPs been more widely doubted and discounted than it is today. Last week the Speaker of the House of Commons announced that, from 2004, not just the Register of Members’ Interests but even their expenses claims will be made available to public scrutiny. Will it ultimately work in the public’s favour to subject our politicians to ever more rigorous audits of their financial affairs?

It is not just MPs who are being investigated – always with the automatic assumption of guilt until innocence is proven – by ever-nosier public bodies. Our very parish councillors, whose work is largely unremunerated, have been asked to declare any ‘interests’, and to register gifts of more than £25 in value. The new rules insisting that peers also announce publicly all their business interests and activities have led Lord Cranborne, for one, to give up active participation in the House of Lords.