MP reforms should be implemented in full

He wants, among other things, for MPs to rent second homes rather than claim for mortgage interest; he also wants them to stop employing family members.

MPs who live within an hour's commute from London will be barred from claiming for second homes at all. MPs will still be able to claim for first-class travel; their spouses and children, however, will not.

This is a relatively modest set of proposals given the shameless abuse by many MPs of the existing system - indeed many voters will envy them a £24,000 rental allowance - but you would never think so, judging from the outraged reaction from many parliamentarians.

Sir Nicholas Winterton, who is stepping down at the next election, has declared that the way MPs are being treated is "quite despicable" and that Sir Christopher is reducing them to "abject poverty" - a relative term.

There may be a spirited attempt by MPs to water down the proposals in the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority; many are already arguing that some of the proposals should be phased in over a decade, or 15 years.

MPs are within their rights to argue that their basic salary could have been significantly increased during the past couple of decades and that the elaborate expenses system was a way of making up for relatively modest remuneration.

But they should be reminded that Sir Christopher's reforms are only necessary because so many of them flagrantly and in some cases, criminally, abused the expenses system and we only learned about that abuse courtesy of the Daily Telegraph. They had this coming.

And if there is one thing that may vex voters almost as much as MPs fiddling their allowances, it is MPs now complaining that they are being hard done by.

Nick Clegg, the Lib-Dem leader, has called for the reforms to be implemented in full; other party leaders should do the same. This is a welcome day of reckoning.

Lisbon is a done deal

There is no getting around the fact that the Lisbon Treaty is a done deal. As William Hague conceded last night: "It is no longer possible to have a referendum."

The Czech president, with bad grace, has abandoned his opposition and he was the last hope the Tories had for ratification to be delayed.

So the party that had made so much of its "cast iron" referendum pledge now has to find new ways of seeking to reshape Britain's role within the EU. They should have seen this coming.

David Davis has suggested a referendum on "the negotiating mandate" that any Tory government would bring to Brussels.

But that does not have the simplicity of a referendum on the Treaty itself which the Government, to its discredit, refused to hold.

Trying to claw back some powers from the EU, possibly in respect of social issues, is probably the best the Tories could, if elected, do. But we shall at least now be able to put the claims made by proponents of the Treaty to the test.

It is meant to enhance Europe's standing in the world, to increase prosperity and boost employment, to make the EU better run. Let's see. The downside will be if it turns out to benefit Europe's elites and diminish Europe's nations.

You're fired

The whole point of Gordon Brown appointing Alan Sugar to the Lords as a "business tsar" was its sheer entertainment value.

In the wake of his unfortuate remarks about companies living in "Disney world" the joke will be for us now to see him told: "you're fired".