Oh What a Circus

However bad the prospects are for the Labour party they seem destined to plumb new depths as 2009 pans out, as this eye-popping piece in The Spectator suggests.

The publication of MPs' expense receipts looks set to become the most damaging scandal of Gordon Brown's premiership:

The three unnamed backbenchers are said to have been placed on 'suicide watch' by Labour whips, who fear they might break down when the details of their excesses come out.

Two are understood to have had extra-marital affairs with other members of Parliament.

Not only are they believed to have shared hotel rooms during annual conference get-togethers and party away days but also to have double-claimed for the rooms on their expenses.

A lot has been made of the recent Freedom of Information requests and seemingly insatiable desire to find out what politicians have been using their expenses for. This has led to some MPs defensively labelling it all as a "circus".

Let me just say that I personally am not interested in the bed-hopping, the extra-marital affairs or what have you but there is no doubt that there will be an impact on poll ratings from all of this and, sad as it may be, that's what gets my juices flowing. The same could be said for the Nigel Griffiths story, I have no interest in who took the photos, if there are more or when more may be squeezed out from the shabby tale, but there will be a knock-on effect on who is elected at the next election.

Full transparency of the expenses system should not be there to reveal which politicians are fooling around behind closed doors but it should be there to reveal, to the last penny, what our elected representatives have been spending our money on.

If the two become perilously intertwined then that is genuinely unfortunate but should not stand in the way of full financial disclosure, however inconvenient it may be for individuals.

Don't blame the passing circus if you're the one who is monkeying around.