The game is up

This is very jolly. Andrew MacKay being barracked by his constituents at a public meeting in Bracknall. The light fades in those little eyes, made piggy by too much time spent in the sun, or on a sun bed. He knows it's game over. Brilliant.

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This also is very jolly. The Times has reprinted an article Willy Rees-Mogg wrote 35 years ago questioning the diminishing role of MPs against an over mighty executive and how the matter of their pay and expenses might be dealt with. A remarkable example of history going in circles or the glacial shift in the debate. In fact is hasn't shifted. What has changed is that the sort of moral trip switch that would have prevented politicians of an earlier age getting into such a bind over money seems to have malfunctioned. Something to do with the spirit of the age and no doubt all blameable on Thatcherism (bless her holy name).

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The Daily Beast has stuck it to Mr Darling over claiming for the cost of an accountant to do his tax return, the point being that Joe Public has no mechanism for claiming that cost as a legitimate business expense. Nine members of the Cabinet have been at the same trick. This is now so serious that many of these people will not get back in, although the Chancellor has the additional problem of a seat, Edinburgh South, that is going to be hard to retain. Ed Balls made a decent job of shaking off a story that he claimed for two Poppy Day wreaths, but such stories just add weight to the impression that he is a generalisimo slimeball, and won't the voters just love that? When he loses, Labour gains. Yvette had a digi camera on the taxpayers, apparently. In what sense does that help her do her job?

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Back to the Thunderer and a little piece about the electors of Burnley Wood, whose MP, Kitty Ussher, a pensions minister, will be in spectacular trouble on election day for bleating about the state of the Artexed ceilings in her London home and claiming some of the cost of having them skimmed. As one constituent puts it: "She wants slapping." This is a bit strong, but there is no way back from that level of anger. What the story didn't say was that Miss Ussher seems never to have done a real job, going from higher education to various think tanks and then being a special adviser before getting a safe seat on an all-female shortlist. It is this lack of understanding of the world beyond the Westminster beltway that will bring so many of them down. Turns out she is Peter Bottomley's niece. Who knew?