Tonight:
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Gordon Brown announced the reform of MPs' remuneration as the ending of a "gentleman's club" culture at the Commons.
But with the news that the Speaker, Michael Martin, may be ushered into the House of Lords after leaving the Commons, it would seem that the club concept of favours done and returned is alive and well.
It is nowadays accepted that ministers who leave the Commons are likely to find a safe berth in the Lords, almost regardless of whether they were any use; similarly, long-standing loyalty to the government as a backbencher is routinely rewarded with a peerage.
But Mr Martin leaves the Commons as an acknowledged failure.
He is to be rewarded for being the worst Speaker anyone can remember and the man who did everything in his power to prevent the exposure of MPs' abuses.
He was not, as his supporters claim, targeted as a Catholic from a poor background but because he was bad at his job.
His elevation to the Lords, possibly to reward his stepping down rather than doing the Prime Minister any further damage, is symbolic of the old, bad way of doing things.
Mr Martin was not responsible for the mindset of entitlement at Westminster but he protected the club.
A peerage for him would not serve as an example of a working-class man made good so much as a party placeman rewarded.
Meanwhile, the Commons is digesting the temporary new rules about restrictions on MPs' expenses. They would remove some of the more egregious abuses revealed over the past fortnight.
These reforms are commendable but a new system should aim at greater simplicity.
A flat-rate, higher salary for MPs with an additional margin for those outside London would serve to replace those expenses that MPs have exploited to their fullest extent.
The Prime Minister is wrong to say that he is trying to root out "centuries-old" traditions; the remuneration system that some MPs have been fiddling is quite recent. The shame is that it has taken the papers to force reform.
School gravy train
One of the strengths of foundation schools is the freedom they give their heads and staff to use their budgets as they see fit.
But that freedom from local authority control comes with a caveat - that the money is used actually to provide education for pupils rather than for the benefit of those in control of the budget.
As we report today, the head of the Copland Community College in Wembley, Sir Alan Davies, is accused of being part of a culture of excessive reward for staff at the expense of pupils.
An independent auditor alleges that Sir Alan presided over a system whereby school staff received excessive payments and "unlawful" bonuses from funds that could have been spent on the school's decrepit buildings.
The money that may, allegedly, have been misdirected could be up to £1.5 million.
The lesson is that autonomy for foundation schools and academies must be kept under strict financial oversight and the heaviest penalties exacted from those who abuse the system.
Foundation schools are kept afloat with taxpayers' money and that money must be strictly accounted for.
The moral is not that schools cannot be trusted to run their own affairs but that there must be scrutiny of how their money is spent.
This week, as we insist that MPs should be brought to account for their misuse of public funds, it seems more wrong than ever that those in charge of schools might be profiting from money that is meant to be spent on education, especially in deprived areas.
If there are to be more foundation schools, they have to be properly run.
Joanna triumphs
Given the low esteem in which politicians are held, it was hopeless for the Prime Minister to fight against Joanna Lumley.
It appears that she has succeeded in forcing the Government to allow Gurkhas who retired before 1997 the right to live here.
What next for Joanna? The Commons? The Lords? Anything is possible now.
Reader views (11)
Speaker Martin promoted to the Lords with a platinum plated pension rather than being sacked like any normal incompetent would have been. What a perfect example of the endemic corruption that the man presided over. You couldn't make this stuff up. One law for us - the little people. Another law for Politicians our Masters. Please. Give us - the people - a chance to sack them all.
- Richard Holland, Lichfield, Staffordshire, 20/05/2009 16:31
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Gordon's Clean Sweep has no honour attached to it at all. This lot were caught behind the bicycle shed with their pants down and now are squirming and wriggling in the most embarassing way ever imagined.
To have swept clean before they were exposed would have been honourable. The fact they spent millions of pounds of our money trying to stop the searching eye of honesty from revealing their money spinning ruse just makes it all the more sickening.
A General Election now please so at least we can deselect this lot and put another bunch of miscreants in place instead.....
- Chris Williams, Cardiff, 20/05/2009 10:43
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Why is he going to be rewarded? he was obviously involved in expense scams? Perhaps he knows too much? MPs don't want to open up a can of worms ??. Silence CAN be bought, eh! "Lord" Martin. . LOL
- Frank, Bristol UK, 20/05/2009 10:38
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Did Gordon Brown promise a title and an generous pension to Michael Martin in order to get him to resign, in an attempt to save some face for Brown and the Labour Party?
Come on Telegraph! Find out for us please. This man deserves no plaudits or honours, his term as Speaker was unsavoury long before the final scandal broke and satisfaction demands that he finally ends in obscurity.
- Jill Besterman, Jersey, Channel Islands, 20/05/2009 10:30
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No rewards for failure was Gordon's line.
The speaker should not be rewarded in any way, if he had not "retired" he would have gone following the vote of no confidence.
- Brian, Glenrothes,Scotland, 20/05/2009 10:17
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A small amount of common sense is all thats required to be smarter than most of Mr Browns so called working mans government he has robbed me and thousands like me of anything I saved in pensions etc the sooner he goes the better.
- Chris Ashcroft, Near Ely, 20/05/2009 10:15
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Mr Martin is NOT BEING REWARDED FOR FAILURE. He may be put into the Lords, like dozens of others have been since the end of the hereditary system, because of his experience. He had 30 years experience in the Commons. As Speaker he reflected the wishes of other members, as speakers have to, and spoke for them as he perceived they desired him to. It is absurd to blame Mr Martin for the failure of expenses control when half the MPs wanted a lax system so that their incomes could be surreptitiously increased. Martin knew this as what they wanted and merely went along with it like Brown and the rest.
If you convert a system which places a sense of service and duty on MPs into one which becomes a career for people who don't have other work or incomes, then they will inevitably take whatever advantages from it that they can. And some will cut corners to get the best rewards.
It's no good churning over the entire procedure for dealing with expenses claims when all that's required is to administer the existing system properly. One can safely bet that if a new system is introduced, it will take twice as many staff and cost five times as much as the present one.
- James De La Mare, London UK, 20/05/2009 10:14
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I cannot beleive that that odious crook Gorbals Mick is to be rewarded with a 1.4 million pension and a peerage. Brown does not get it at all and perpetuates trough snuffling what can we do !!!!!!! Maybe a start would be some reading lessons for the coterie of thick Jocks how can you be in a high profile job for 9 years and still not be able to read properly is bad enough but to make him a peer is a disgrace
- Arthur Crabb, Leiceater, 20/05/2009 10:13
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Typical,I seem to recall that this person was also involved in some expenses uproar.Bring back Winston, at least he was honourable.Who are these people responsible to,it seems to me that they are beholden to no one.
- P Klitofsky, Sutton in Ashfield,England, 20/05/2009 09:53
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Should be known as lady lumley mbe.she took on the government and won the right for these brave men to stay in the country they put their lifes on the line for.i salute lady joanna and the gurkhas.
- Jim Morton, coatbridge, 20/05/2009 09:51
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Why reward New Labour for failure? Sack them at the first opportunity.
- Paul Freeman, London, England, 20/05/2009 09:45
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