Forget lobbying, the real scandal is that MPs don’t have enough to do and aren’t paid enough

I am sorry to hear about Malcolm Rifkind, though less sorry to hear about Jack Straw, whose ‘outside interests’ I have had cause to write about here before.

How often do MPs fall for this sort of sting? Every six months? Every nine? Think of all the ones that don’t make it as far as our TV screens because their intended target cottoned on while being asked to speak more clearly into their interviewer’s tie?

Anyway, for all the fun and damage these scandals create, the truth is that lobbying scandals are the gift that keep on giving because nobody will address the twin underlying problems that cause them. Plenty of people agree with one, but almost no one wants to address both. The problems are that British MPs have too little to do and are not paid enough.

That may sound contradictory. But the first — that MPs do not have enough to do was even confirmed before the last election by one of the saints of modern politics, Frank Field. It is the guilty secret of Westminster politics. Almost no meaningful legislation gets discussed in the House because what used to be the business of the House is now largely dealt with by Brussels above or by devolved assemblies and local government below. Kick around this wasteland of ambition for long enough and add into the mix, after many years, the effects of the contempt in which MPs are held and it shouldn’t be a surprise that a feeling of ‘I’m owed’ might develop in the twilight of an MPs career.

And then there is the pay issue. It remains a fact that although MPs are far better paid than most of the population they do not lead financially enviable lives.