As disgraced cash-for-questions Tory Patrick Mercer plotted his dodgy Fiji deal, there was one thing concerning him above all else:

“Do you know the website Guido Fawkes? Guido Fawkes will be all over this. Like a dose of clap. He really will. Trying to find out where the corruption is in it.”

He wasn’t worried about being caught by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, he was worried about Guido. This blog uncovered Mercer at it with lobbyists in 2011, when he took £10,000 from a security company and sponsored a pass for its Managing Director. The authorities did nothing. The warning signs were there, the complaint went in, but the corruption continued…

By the admission of a crooked MP, the rules are so weak that an Honourable Member thinking of taking cash for questions or selling amendments to lobbyists dismisses the threat of reprimand. Guido and the rest of the free press are the only ones guarding the guardians. As someone, somewhere once said: sunlight is the best disinfectant…