MInistry of Truth out of business at last

Last day in Parliament before Summer Hols will see the passing of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority Bill - hailed as a constitutional milestone, the product of a very English revolution.

Indeed, you'll recall Ministers amidst the expenses scandal telling us it will mark the "end of self-regulation" for Parliament - the kind of landmark legislation that would certainly put the Ministry out of business (and we'd go to the campaigning grave with a smile on our face).

So far as the press is concerned, you could be forgiven for thinking it was all over. Having upped their circulation with details of porn films, bathplugs and moats... the dull business of constitutional milestones and actually making MPs accountable to the country need not trouble us.

Actually, that's not quite fair.

The Times, in their "more news" section under the strapline "MPs to begin an 82-day break, after shortest session in decades" were concerned enough to get a quick dig in at the PM and mention in the 12th paragraph of their article that the Bill perhaps wasn't as robust as was needed,

"...But with Mr Brown having imposed the tightest possible timetable for the Bill, MPs and peers have forced him into climbdown after climbdown. As a result many of its original offences and sanctions have disappeared.

Yesterday in the Lords a clause that would have created an offence of failing to comply with the register of financial interests that will be maintained by the new authority was removed."

'Nuff said.