As the judgement day approaches for the four MPs and two Lords facing trial, an FOIing co-conspirator makes a very valid point. Asking how much Lord Paul (£41,982), Bhaitia (£27,446) and Baroness Uddin (£0) have paid back to date, they were informed that no interest was added. The same logic must have applied to all the money from the fiddlers in the Commons, much of which is still being chased from MPs…

If the repayments, which were quiet admissions of guilt that no ordinary citizen could use as penance for a crime, do not include interest then surely the honourable Members and Peers have profited from their little “borrowings”?