If MPs had hoped that the summer recess would bring some relief from the nightmare that descended upon them they were sorely mistaken. If Sir Thomas has uncovered widespread misuse of taxpayers' money it also belies the efforts of Speaker Bercow and others to maintain that this was confined to a small number. Yet talking to MPs at the party conferences it is clear that many are deeply aggrieved over what has happened to them. While in public they are contrite, in private most are plain livid. They believe they were entitled to claim the full whack under the rules and it was their business how they went about doing so. One Tory MP said he felt that Parliament and the political system had been irreparably damaged by the leak of the computer disk containing the information that they wanted kept confidential – and he was among the so-called "good guys" who had hardly claimed anything.