Daily Mail Comment: Will others follow Wendy's example?

What a nightmare weekend this has been for the Prime Minister.

First he learns he must face a deeply unwelcome by-election in a 'safe' Labour seat (is there any such thing these days?), as the MP for Glasgow East  -  also accused of sleaze  -  resigns for 'health' reasons.

Wendy Alexander has resigned as leader of the Scottish Labour party

Next, backbenchers plan a renewed revolt over the 10p tax band, while Chancellor Alistair Darling prepares yet another humiliating U-turn, this time over backdated increases in vehicle excise duty.

Then news emerges of yet more Labour donors withdrawing their support, throwing Mr Brown on the mercy of the trades unions to fund the next election.

Now, to cap it all, he sees his party plunged into a Scottish leadership battle, thanks to Miss Alexander.

Theories abound over the full story behind her departure.

Her friends believe she was a victim of backstabbing by Labour and hounding by the Scottish Parliament's nationalist-dominated standards committee.

Meanwhile, her enemies claim she simply resigned in a fit of bruised egotism, because SNP First Minister Alex Salmond has been running rings around her since her election last autumn.

But whatever her reasons  -  and however uncomfortable her resignation may be for Mr Brown  -  doesn't it make a welcome change to see a senior politician paying the price for an allegation of sleaze?

What a contrast with the behaviour of Tory Chairman Caroline Spelman, who clings to her job in spite of much more serious charges that she used public funds improperly to pay her nanny.

Until she can clear her name, she should follow Miss Alexander's example and stand down.

Signing liberty away

As we've all discovered, it's hard enough to trust our own Government with our personal details.

But at least Britons can hold British ministers to account when they lose or abuse their data.

There will be no such safeguards under a deeply disturbing deal now being negotiated in secret between Brussels and Washington.

Without public debate, the EU plans to give American government agencies full access to the official files, bank and credit card records, travel plans and even internet browsing habits of every European who wishes to visit the U.S.

Under the plans, Britons will be treated in just the same way as Slovaks, Latvians or Lithuanians  -  despite the visa waiver treaty between the U.S. and the UK.

So much for the Special Relationship, which has cost so much British blood in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What a grim day it will be for our sovereignty, if foreigners in Brussels are allowed to sign away British liberties to the CIA.

A lost generation

From the Children's Society comes yet more evidence of the damage inflicted on us all by materialism, the cult of celebrity and the breakdown of family life.

A survey for the charity finds some two thirds of adults believe the moral values of today's children are not as strong as when they themselves were young.

Meanwhile a string of experts cite the central importance of the family in instilling social responsibility and teaching children the difference between right and wrong.

How much longer must we all go on paying the bills for social dysfunction before we start tackling the family breakdown that lies at its root?