Enduring Images

The sight of David Cameron's former PPS Andrew MacKay's sweaty, panicked, fake-tanned face, as he unsuccessfully claimed constituents' support, is another memorable image from the expenses scandal. Having emerged from a sultry, bad-tempered public meeting on Friday evening, MacKay tried to brazen it out by telling huge porkies before the very people who had witnessed his vilification. The British, once roused, are not so easily cowed. They turned on him and eloquently killed his political career. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8064642.stm

Cameron has 'wacked' several senior figures of the party over the last few days in a ruthless but necessary display of his political leadership. The pattern emerging is more widespread abuse and more ridiculous claims by Conservative members than Labour. The public are not finding it hard to find symbols of greed which typify the MPs' sense of invulnerability and aloofness: first, dog food, then moat cleaning and now an island for ducks.

Cameron knows each laughable yet still outrageous example threatens to re-toxify the party's 'green and socially responsible' brand. But a major cull would only confirm the old suspicions of a party dominated by Tory toffs living in another world by different rules. It's a tightrope moment for Dave.

Antony Steen's (Totnes) interview on World at One must have made Cameron erupt. Although, his deputy, William Hague made a penitent performance on Question Time saying, "we get it now," Steen ripped off this veneer by declaring his behaviour (expenses on the forestry on his estate) as "impeccable". He also broke the No.1 rule in politics - never insult your electorate. By reducing the public's motivation as purely driven by "jealousy", he signed his own political death warrant. He's not deselected yet but he has no hope of being an MP beyond next year.

Cams has proven to be more adept than Brown or Clegg at getting positive messages out throughout this Parliamentary cataclysm. He could seize the initiative again by throwing his weight behind big reforms like fixed-term Parliaments and a more elected second chamber. But more grandees' unapolagetic largesse at our expense threatens to curtail all the gains he has made with the public. And we've got a long memory down our way.