I see the BBC’s Nick Robinson is positively salivating at the prospect of MPs’ expenses being published in full. One of the two constituents who’ve written to me about this issue received a response from me along these lines: “If it were up to the public, the only reward a public servant received would be to be put in stocks every fortnight and pelted with rotten fruit. And even then there would be a public demand that it should happen every week.”

He replied with a more chastened view. Robinson’s view is that only by being completely open about our expenses will the public have respect for MPs. Sadly optimistic. As long as MPs exist, they/we will be despised. It comes with the territory.