I'm really angry about this MPs' allowances business. Really angry that people are pretending that they didn't know that politicians are in the business of lining their pockets. In our pseudo-democracy the function of parliament and of the political class is to act as a smokescreen for the machinations of the ruling class. Everyone knows that whoever forms the next government will carry on doing what the present government is doing; taking its foreign policy from Washington, and its domestic policy from Rupert Murdoch and his ilk. When things go badly, as they usually do, they are expected to perform the role of scapegoat and divert the public's resentment from the true source of its discontents.
In return for this function they are permitted to help themselves to substantial sums from the public purse. The whole system of remuneration is constructed to facilitate this process. In addition they can earn a little extra by doing favours for the master class. This is their compensation for being the decoy ducks of capitalism.
The press is well aware of this. In fact journalists work under a similar system. They have their expense accounts by means of which they can increase their income substantially. They too can earn a little extra by airing stories for the proprietors of their souls, stories that can enhance or destroy reputations, or boost the price of shares. In return they have to abandon all scruple, and suffer the mistrust and the obloquy of the public.
All this is well known, so why are so many people beside themselves with righteous indignation? Anyone who wasn't aware that our political class is rotten to the core has deliberately avoided the truth, usually out of fear of having to take radical action. Others have kept silent because they benefitted from the corruption.
So what will happen now? The outcry will continue a little longer. A few of the greedier individuals will be thrown to the wolves. These are the "rotten apples" that always feature in cosmetic purges. The press will decide that they've taken the matter as far as they can without undermining the corrupt system that is their bread and butter (and cake, and booze, and whores). There will of course be a committee or two set up, made up of "the great and the good"; that is, senior members of the political class who will claim vast sums in expenses for their trouble. There will be an anodyne report which will lay the blame at the door of no individual or organisation. Meanwhile the corruption will continue, perhaps in some altered form to be exposed a decade or so from now.