What to do about IPSA?

I wish I could tell you that the main topic of conversation in Westminster today is Egypt and the future of the Middle East. But it isn’t. It is those Sally Bercow photos.  But if it wasn’t the picture of the Speaker’s wife naked but for a sheet that MPs were talking about it would be IPSA, the expenses body, following the publication of their claims for September and October.

MPs detest IPSA. They believe, with good reason, it to be arrogant and inefficient. So strong is MPs’ opinion on this front, that David Cameron told Tory MPs late last year that if IPSA hadn’t sorted itself out by April, he’d sort it.

The leader of the House Sir George Young has now joined in the attacks on the body, saying ‘it was at best distracting and at worst impeding’ MPs from doing their duty as members of parliament. But IPSA has hit back at this criticism, suggesting that it won’t back down.

This puts Cameron in a very difficult position, the Scylla of his MPs to one side of him and the Charybdis of public opinion, which remains outraged by abuses of the system, on the other side. How he tries to navigate between the two will be a real test of his political mettle.