The Bathplug Parliament

Despite the moat-cleaning, the up-market duck houses, the serial second-home flipping, the tax avoidance, the exploitation of grace and favour homes, what symbolizes to me the grubby level at which our Parliamentary representatives is the claim for an 88p bath plug. Nothing was too trivial to legitimately pad expense claims to ensure that they totalled the maximum allowable. We surely have come to a nadir when our elected representatives can occupy themselves with the minutiae of their daily lives.

So I will remember this as the bathplug parliament and the sooner someone pulls the plug and allos the dirty water to swill, clockwise, down the drain, the better. It's all very well for party leaders to talk about high-minded reform now - yes it is needed, but nobody is listening to this lot, and most of all, nobody is listening to this discredited (no, barely credited) Prime Minister. He even managed to bungle the Queen's appearance at the D-Day anniversary. How does he manage things so badly?

With some rats already deserting the sinking ship this is either Brown's last week or the first week of another year in government. It's probably going to be the latter - he appears to have enough people about him who will quite like enjoying the ministerial perks for another year - even the odd replacement bath plug.