Expenses Backlash Extra! Guilty Party Named!

The problem with being a newspaper columnist is that you have to keep finding new stuff to say. New is more important than better, you understand. So when everyone is outraged (and, hell, justifiably so for once!) by the spectacle of MPs’ outrageous abuse of the spirit, and often the letter, of their expense arrangements then, sure as eggs is eggs, you know some columnist is going to take the contrary view and argue that it’s all a lot of fuss over not very much.

David Aaronovitch has nobly decided that this is his role this week, inviting us to cool our passions and admire his sagacity as he scolds the public for daring to be angry. Remarkably, Aaronovitch concludes that the public, not parliamentarians, are the guilty ones. If only the little people wouldn’t get so upset, you see.

Naturally, Macauley’s line to the effect that “We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality,” is trotted out, though personally I’m more afraid of MPs periodical fits of morality than I am of the general public.