Perhaps. But this comes ill from a Speaker who ordered £45,000 in refurbishments to his grace-and-favour apartment (while reportedly failing to pay tax on this benefit) and was one of the most notorious expenses cheats to emerge from the Telegraph investigation. Ultimately it is the Speaker, and nobody else, who is responsible for the constant undermining of Ipsa. But for him, the stench of arrogance and greed would not be emerging once again from the Commons. Matters are little better in the Lords, where Tory peer Lord Hanningfield, back from a stint in prison for fraudulent accounting, has claimed £21,000 in expenses despite not speaking in one debate.