And the winners are…..

Jacqui Smith: Remote - in the handbag. Husband - in the doghouse.

Given the recent news stories about the Home Secretary’s husband buying porn on the rates, and Tony McNulty’s complicated housing arrangements, it’s worth getting the whole debate in perspective.

Firstly, Iain Dale thinks it’s about as serious as things can get from the point of view of the reputation of politics.

Last year, a couple of  prominent Conservative Bloggers – Tim Montgomerie and Matt Sinclair made the case that politicians private lives do matter.

They received a thorough thoughful response from Gracchi over at The Liberal Conspiracy site:

Now, over at Stumbling and Mumbling, Chris Dillow adds a wry footnote to the debate.

I’d make two points that I’ve probably already made before here:

1. For a country that has a spectacularly un-corrupt political culture, a remarkable job is being done convincing the public that the UK is some kind of kleptocracy.
2. Elected politicians have rivals. Those rivals are not subjected to anything like the level of scrutiny that politicians are. They have few of the obligations politicians have to be transparent in their dealings. Those people exercise a good deal of power over us as well though.

Those who would prefer decisions to be made by bureaucrats or unelected pressure groups are the only winners here. Oh – I forgot. I should have also mentioned the media in that last sentence.