Westminster's Culture of Deference

The Legg Report on MPs' expenses says that some 400 MPs have to pay back a total of £1.1million, which gives an idea of the extraordinary scale of expense abuses taking place. The Director of Public Prosecutions is due to announce whether or not he will be prosecuting any MPs later today. One thing that perhaps indicates why MPs were able to get away with such abuse, unchecked, for so long, is the sheer level of ridiculous deference shown them in the isolated bubble of Westminster Palace. This piece on Iain Dale's blog is very illuminating in this regard.