If Caroline Spelman does lose her job – noticeably Dave has not come out and given her fulsome support yet – who will succeed her as Tory Chairman? Speculation is rising.

The job is not what it was in the glory days of Parkinson and Tebbit. Ashcroft’s team does process and the nitty gritty of the campaign machine in marginals, Osborne is charge of general election strategy. Betting is on Eric Pickles or Chris Grayling. Both popular with the activists, Pickles is adored and is basking in the post by-election glory. Grayling is fantastically good at taking the fight to Labour. He isn’t afraid of Paxman and comes over well on the news shows. Spelman on the other hand has only registered with the public now and for the wrong reasons…

According to the latest PoliticsHome “Insider Panel” two thirds think all parties have something to fear from Euro-sleaze allegations. The insiders know what Guido has always said is true – they are all at it. Taxpayer’s money is being spent on ensuring parasite politicians can employ their spouses, lovers and offspring at the public’s expense. They gentrify their gardens, clean their windows, buy their wives cars, finance trips to their children’s foreign weddings, carry out household repairs, buy themselves plasma TVs and Aga stoves at our expense. When not eating in taxpayer subsidised restaurants they charge their groceries to the taxpayer. Prescott literally gorged himself until he puked, then claimed for the food on expenses – and we paid his residential cleaning bill. Many MPs approaching retirement have gained themselves property portfolios built at the taxpayer’s expense. The politicians who deny themselves personal pork are few and far between.

This culture of pork was one of the motivating reasons for Guido setting up this blog. The silence from the political class on this issue is because they really are almost all at it. Millionaires like Clegg and Cameron claim subsidies for their mortgages equivalent to more than most people in this country earn. Even Gordon Brown, who has two gratis homes – Downing Street and Chequers – claims for a London flat and his constituency home.

The Spelman saga encapsulates the problem – ignore the excuses about hard pressed mothers – take her at her word. That a politically savvy high flier thought it even remotely possible and ethical that she could pay her nanny at the taxpayers expense is indicative of the culture. Her and her husband could well afford to pay it themselves, millions of us do. No one in the private sector would dream of asking their employer to pay their childcare costs, we pay our own bills out of post tax income and our taxes go to pay their personal expenses tax free. The sheer arrogance of these pigs is breathtaking.