Who should represent you?

Reading between the lines of the reports of Cameron's press conference on Tory MPs' expenses yesterday, he has gone as far as he can with the parliamentary Conservative party. As Adam Boulton explains, paying back the ill-gotten gains is as far as Tory MPs are willing to go.

When someone is punished, either they are contrite and take their punishment or they are not. Clearly the Tory MPs are not. They still feel that they are in a position to negotiate over what their punishment will be. They presumably still feel they have done nothing wrong - the argument that "it was within the rules" argument seems to dominate their thoughts.

Lots of people have pointed out that this kind of thinking suggests an inability to distinguish right from wrong. This is undoubtedly true.

And we can't have people like that as our representatives in Parliament.

It's very sad for Cameron, who I think would go further if he had the ability to do so, but he relies on the parliamentary party for his position. He cannot force the crooks out. So there's no alternative but for the electorate to deal with the issue themselves. The fact remains that decent people cannot vote for the three big parties and I hope they give their verdict accordingly.