This is far worse than MPs’ expenses

Stephen Byers either pimped himself out to big business and betrayed the electorate, or he didn’t, in which case he made fraudulent claims, says Rod Liddle. Either way, the public won’t tolerate this level of corruption

I once fell into conversation with a whore, up on Streatham Hill in south London. A long time ago now; back then, in the early 1980s, it was a renowned red-light district. You’d look out of your window at night and see a street full of parked cars bouncing up and down, as if they were in a weird theme park. Whoreworld©. Most of us who lived there were propositioned from time to time, which always made me feel useful and wanted. Anyway, one time I engaged some rather worn-out old hag in a pious and cringing (on my part) conversation about her trade. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I see myself as no different from a taxi cab for hire.