The real scandal is that MPs are paid so little

Disgraced politicians should not be relentlessly persecuted, says Rod Liddle. We should address the problem of MPs’ expenses by raising their salaries instead

I felt a little ashamed watching the Westminster Three — Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor — herded into a magistrates court to face charges of defrauding the taxpayer with their MPs expenses claims. Outside the court there were the usual maniacs howling at them, or grunting like pigs — one man even wore a pig’s head to drive home the point more forcefully. Can you imagine the sort of people who would do that? ‘Any plans for the day, dear?’ ‘Yes, I’m going to dress up as a pig and shout abuse at MPs. I have hired a pig’s head from a theatrical supplies shop, precisely for this purpose.’

And yet if the disgraced MPs and their alleged venality are somehow emblematic of our times, then the incontinent self-righteous anger of embittered nonentities is even more so, a sort of flip-side to the bizarre vomiting of public grief which we first witnessed with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.