I don't know if Caroline Spelman is guilty of the accusations made over her methods of employment, or indeed whether Ray Lewis is guilty as charged over accusations made about him (although the fact that the Church of England fell out with him says a lot).

What it does say however is that the Conservatives are showing a familiar degree of arrogance that they were ready to display whilst in power. One can almost empathise with them. The PM appears to be on the ropes, Labour is embroiled in donors scandals, there is a climb in the opinion polls and no matter how David Cameron calls for his party to be careful, one cannot blame them for being a little bit trigger happy.

The problem is in political situations of this kind is, of course, to be careful about throwing stones in glasshouses. For all the Evening Standard's daily attacks on Ken Livingstone, they have been a bit muted about Ray Lewis in a way which almost smacks of double standards. Likewise George Osborne, months after failing to declare £487.000 over a donation made to his office, seems to have followed Oscar Wilde's dictum of 'Once is a misfortune, two is sheer carelessness' over failing to understand that accepting a £10.000 speaking fee is perhaps a little bit off. But as some less charitable than myself might indulgently say 'whoopsy daisy', perhaps if he spent less time making personal jibes at every oppurtunity about Gordon Brown and more time realising that at this rate he will not make a credible alternative as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

And, strange as it may seem, I take no pleasure from this (well maybe a small amount on account of the fact they are opposition, but that says more about me..). If anything this denigrates us all and it doesn't help in long-term electoral gain, rather it encourages most people to go 'Politicians! They are all the same!' And I would have thought that the opposition parties would get that better than anyone