Alan Duncan is the Tories' chief spokesman on the issue of expenses and the party's representative on the members estimate committee, which sets the rules about MPs' allowances.

His expressions of regret about his own claims of thousands of pounds for gardening at his second home — he repaid £5,000 of his allowance — were fulsome. He said he understood public concern and was keen to restore his “reputation and integrity”. On radio and television he went out of his way to say, movingly, that people were justified in being angry with MPs.

All of which makes his position unsustainable now that he has been filmed on camera by an expenses campaigner, complaining during a private conversation that MPs “have to live on rations and are treated like shit” and that no one who has done anything in the outside world would come into the Commons again. The discrepancy between his public remarks — which he unconvincingly described as a joke — and his private opinions are simply too great for him to stay in his job.

This paper does not want politicians to be penalised for departures from the bland and anodyne. Non‑conformity and individuality are already in short supply. Unfortunately this particular expression of opinion is too blatantly at odds with the party's line for Mr Duncan to remain on the Tory front bench. If off-message Tory MPs such as Anthony Steen — who attributed public indignation about his expenses to jealousy — can lose their seats, it is a bit much for Mr Duncan to keep his job.

By sacking Mr Duncan, Mr Cameron can send the message that his rigour with Tory MPs who came badly out of the expenses revelations is not just a means to rid his party of those whom he finds uncongenial but is genuine and (relatively) impartial. Quite how angry people are, not just the public but also party members, can be seen in the fact that another Tory MP, Anne Main, faces a deselection meeting tonight at St Alban's as a result of the revelation that she allowed her grown-up daughter to live for free in her second home, funded by the taxpayer.

If Mr Duncan goes, the electorate will still believe that he simply expressed in private the real views of most MPs, that they were misunderstood and hard done by in the expenses scandal but at least Mr Cameron could then claim to be in touch with the public mood.

Compromise needed over rail strike

The rail strike today and tomorrow from Liverpool Street is causing enormous disruption to the 150,000 who use National Express services every day. There is hope that there may be limited services. Aslef, the main train drivers' union, has declared it will escalate the dispute but two other unions, the RMT and TSSA, may move towards an agreement, based on a pay rise this year and next.

They are right to compromise and the RMT should follow suit today. But this is not to say that the rail operator, National Express, is in the right. Aslef has made clear that the issues at stake are to do with poor staff conditions and disciplinary procedures as well as pay.

The management has shown extraordinary ineptitude in its dealings with passengers as well as in its relations with its employees. It has cut 750 jobs on two services, including a customer call centre and ticket office staff and it has made its long-distance journeys much less tolerable by removing buffet cars.

Ticket prices, moreover, rose by six per cent in January, which may be to do with the inflated price the company paid the Government to renew its East Coast franchise. The RMT must compromise but so too must the operator.

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