Tory MP Derek Conway has got caught out and he is being given a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again. He paid some £40,000 over four years to his son to finance his way through university out of your taxes. There is not a scrap of evidence, apart from Conway’s say-so, that his son did any work in return. Nobody outside the Conway family is willing to back up the claim that the son did any work.

The Select Committee on Standards and Privileges is recommending Conway pay back some £13,000 that it reckons was over-paid. Reading between the lines they suspect, but have been unable to prove, that no work was done whatsoever. Can you think of another profession where if £40,000 was paid to a family member for nothing in return the police would not be called in?

UPDATE : Duncan Borrowman, LibDem candidate for Conway’s seat has written to the police demanding an investigation.