We know MP s are fond of riding the gravy train, but there is no end of the line – even when their careers hit the buffers.
If suspended MPs hang on until the General Election, each will receive up to £66,500 as a pay-off, with the “loss of office” element worth double the amount ordinary workers get in statutory redundancy.
It does not matter whether suspensions are a result of misconduct, dishonesty or stupidity, they can still fill their pockets.
MPs differ from everyone else in that there is no summary dismissal. If they do not resign, or go to prison, only lengthy inquiries and cumbersome recall petitions can get rid.
Disgraced former Health Secretary Matt Hancock was booted out of the Tory Parliamentary party because he preferred to snaffle £320,000 from I’m A Celebrity than do his job.
Yet he will also be entitled to a bumper payout when he stands down. Had he quit and triggered a by-election, the taxpayer would have been saved that cash.
We accept departing MPs incur some legitimate extra expenses. Their aides, who also lose their jobs, need severance pay, and constituency offices must be wound up.
We would get better value for money if staff were centrally employed by Parliament. Because, like trains, another MP they could work for would come along.
The next government must take a fresh look at this system. And reform it.
A dying shame
It's shocking that one in four children aged 10 or 11 are obese, and that child hospital admissions for weight-related conditions are up more than five-fold.
The 98 takeaways we saw in the country’s unhealthiest postcode of Knowsley, Merseyside, are partly to blame. So are cheap freezer meals bought because families cannot afford anything else. Tory failure to tackle poverty and get the levelling up agenda to work properly also plays its part.
If kids are to lead healthier lifestyles, the place to start is in our schools, teaching basic nutrition and the importance of exercise.
They need to be encouraged to get out into play areas and football fields and learn how too much sitting at screens playing video games will damage their long-term health.
Only then will they have a sporting chance to avoid the lifestyles and diseases which could cut their adult lives short.
Boys next flaw
The clean-cut image of 1960s chart-toppers Herman’s Hermits was all just an act. Frontman Peter Noone now confesses they misbehaved as much as the Rolling Stones.
The group’s greatest hit was I’m Into Something Good – but it turns out they were really into something bad all along…