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seemed, was relaxed that one of his MPs had misappropriated £90,000 of
taxpayers' money. The Conservatives became famous as the party of sleaze in
the 1990s: under Duncan Smith they seem in no hurry to relinquish the tag.
Yet more extraordinary was the silence of Labour. Until very recently the
Labour whips office has readily deployed its backbench Rottweilers on even
minor items of alleged Tory corruption. In this case not one Labour MP spoke
out.

It is easy enough to guess what has been going on. There has been a
complicit little deal between the two main parties. Labour is glad not to
embarrass the Conservative party over Trend so long as the Tories repay the
favour in due course. As one MP fond of military metaphors put it, attacking
Trend is an 'area weapon'. But this non-aggression pact between the parties
speaks volumes about the contempt in which the government now holds the
official opposition, and shows how cowed and feeble the Conservatives have
become.

The origins of the sordid little deal go back to the summer of 2001, when
Labour business managers decided on the assassination of Elizabeth Filkin.
Filkin's crime was to take her job - parliamentary commissioner for
standards - seriously. When evidence of wrongdoing came her way, she
investigated. A number of Tory MPs - Teresa Gorman, John Major and William
Hague among them - were embarrassed by her inquiries. So were Cabinet
ministers like John Reid, Peter Mandelson and John Prescott. In many cases
her findings were so incendiary that the Labour-controlled standards and
privileges committee watered down her findings. Martin Bell, the
sleaze-busting MP who sat on this committee, has since claimed that the
Labour whips office applied improper pressure to ensure helpful results. A
striking number of its relatively obscure Labour members were given peerages
after the last election. Perhaps that is simply a coincidence.

In due course Labour powerbrokers - aided and abetted by Eric Forth, the
shadow leader of the house - got rid of Filkin. Her successor, Sir Philip
Mawer, from deep within the Whitehall establishment, took over in March last
year. At about the same time, rules regarding MPs' disclosure were relaxed.
Since then there has been radio silence from Mawer. Filkin, during her three
years, made 39 full investigations on the basis of some 300 complaints. When
I rang Mawer to ask for his comparable figures at the end of ten months, he
would not disclose them. The indications are that there have been far fewer
complaints and investigations under Mawer, and that whenever MPs congregate
to discuss their expenses packages in the Strangers' Bar, it's trebles all
round.

Some might argue that Mawer's inertia simply reflects shortage of business:
i.e., an exemplary new honesty among MPs. But there is evidence to the
contrary. I am told that both whips offices are quietly urging backbenchers
not to make complaints to Mawer. It is true that the public are still free
to approach the parliamentary commissioner directly. But many ordinary
people, intimidated by Parliament, prefer to go through their MP. Those that
do may be discouraged.

When John Major set up the office of parliamentary commissioner for
standards seven years ago, he promised a new probity in public life. Tony
Blair reinforced this sentiment. 'We will be tough on sleaze,' he inevitably
pronounced, 'and tough on the causes of sleaze.' It is not clear which
posture is the more repellent: Tory determination to stick to their corrupt
and greedy old ways or New Labour's jaw-dropping cynicism. It is now sadly
apparent that the New Labour pledge to 'clean up' public life was aimed only
at winning votes. As the Filkin episode (among others) demonstrates, the
government has been concerned to entrench sleaze, not root it out, since
winning power.

Michael Trend's decision to step down at Windsor follows anger in his local
party: good for them, though it would be much better if Trend were to quit
at once. It is clear that his decision to stand down owes nothing to either
of the main party machines at Westminster. They have formed a cosy pact to
protect their own dodgy deals, fiddled expenses and moral squalor. Meanwhile
MPs continue to award themselves eye-poppingly generous pension schemes and
ever more lavish accommodation and expenses packages. It is an arrangement
that cuts out the general public, fuels cynicism, and is beginning to pose a
danger to democracy.