This being Budget week there’s half a chance that Westminster will actually get back to discussing policies rather than personalities. I am heartily sick of getting phone calls from national journalists inviting me to slag-off my fellow MPs for claiming for a second home when they represent constituencies closer to the House of Commons than Reading West. I’ve also been disgusted by the depths to which people in all political parties are now prepared to sink in order to smear their opponents. In my view the advent of political blogging has been a major factor in dragging politics further into the gutter as it has become a licence for some to smear and libel those they disagree with or dislike with impunity. I look forward to the day when some of these self-appointed supremos of the political blogosphere have to justify themselves and the lies and rumours they spread in a court of law.

It was four years ago last month when I won my libel action against the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Liam Fox, and the Conservative candidates for Reading West and East for seeking to smear me ahead of the 2004 local elections. This is one of the reasons I am a little cynical about David Cameron’s promise to clean up politics when he still has some of these smear merchants in his Shadow Cabinet and on his front bench team. At least Gordon Brown has sacked the odious Damian McBride!

This week has also seen an announcement from the Government to reform the system of MPs’ allowances and to bear down on MPs who draw a full time salary from the taxpayer yet take second jobs, or sit on company boards. There are also proposals for MPs’ staff to be employed directly by the House of Commons and for the second home allowance to be replaced with a flat rate overnight allowance based on actual attendance in Westminster.

These are sensible proposals and reflect calls I made in my 2007 Private Member’s Bill to end MPs moonlighting, and in this column last year when I wrote:-

 “All MPs should be forced to work full-time for their £61,000 a year salary and outside business interests and directorships should be banned. … Representing 70,000 constituents is a full time job.  There should be a centrally administered budget to employ staff working for MPs … and MPs should no longer manage their own payroll.  This would ensure the scandal of Derek Conway employing his family members to do next to no work could never be repeated.” 

Ah well, better late than never!