This follows his decision to plead guilty to three charges of false accounting relating to his abuse of the Parliamentary expenses system.

After the announcement, I went looking to see if I could see any mention of this on his website (sadly not). Instead I noticed that he was running an online poll posing the question “Do you support the rise in VAT?”.

Selecting my answer, I submitted, expecting to find swathes of people saying “No”. Instead, I was presented with this:

The disgraced former Labour MP obviously wasn’t expecting visitors to his website to turn round and say “actually, yes, I do support the rise”.

Then again, he probably wasn’t expecting (until recently) to face a custodial sentence for fraud!

Whichever you choose to believe, it is clear to me that the Labour MP for Gillingham and Rainham, Paul Clark, has lost touch with his constituents after his expenses claims were revealed.

In the independent report by Sir Thomas Legg, it was stated of Mr Clark that: “[i]n default of evidence to support payments for mortgage interest of ?11,750.35 for 2008-09, I must regard these payments as having been invalid. Accordingly my recommendation is that Mr Clark should repay the whole of this sum”.

Mr Clark responded, via press release, on his website, essentially saying that he will not be paying back the money he overclaimed.

Unsurprisingly, and rather justly, Mr Clark’s behaviour and attitude has been .met with disgust, with opposition candidates and activists, divided by party, yet united by indignation.

Residents in Gillingham and Rainha.m will feel the same – and with only a few months until he is likely to be voted out of a job, is showing disgraceful disrespect to his employers.

Mr Clark is showing exactly why we need a change in British politics – before people are put off permanently.

He needs to pay back the money, before his days in Parliament are up – which will not be long:

People in Gillingham and Rainham have lost trust and faith in their MP!

Mr McFarlane, who resigned from Medway Council after being suspended by his party group, confessed to cheating the system for nearly ?4,000 whilst receiving his ?9,000 per-year councillor’s allowance.

On the rap sheet for the disgraced former councillor was one charge of falsely claiming housing benefit (?173.63), council tax benefit (?51.91) and Job Seekers’ Allowance (?3,544.71). As an elected member receiving an allowance, he was not entitled to any of the benefits claimed.

Mr McFarlane also had a further 17 offences taken into account. Representing himself at Medway Magistrates’ Court, he accepted “total responsibility for the oversight on my part”, before claiming that his health problems made a community punishment unsuitable.

Mr Nigel Day, Chairman of the Bench, sentenced Mr McFarlane to 24 months’ conditional discharge, ?150 court costs and repayment of the benefits illegally claimed.

Cllr Alan Jarrett, Portfolio Holder for Finance on Medway Council, said “This prosecution sends a clear message to everyone that Medway Council will not tolerate benefit fraud of any kind.

“It is completely unacceptable and we won?t hesitate to investigate, track down and prosecute those who cheat the system.

“I would like to pay tribute to the council?s investigation and legal teams who work tirelessly to make sure benefits go to the people who really need them.”

The instant reaction to this news has to be ‘he’ll be lucky’ – and for once I do not mean that in a partisan manner. Indeed all parties have been guilty of breaching the ‘spirit of the rules’ in one way or another, if not the actual rules in some well-documented cases.

The problem has been caused by a mixture of both greedy MPs, and the seemingly laissez-faire attitude towards claims, many of which were allegedly agreed over ‘a drink and a smoke’. Although most MPs have not actually, it would appear, broken the rules, it is apparent after three weeks of revelations that these meetings were used to persuade fees office officials to look favorably on claims that may not have been entirely within the spirit of the rules.

An obvious result of the sleazy stench emanating from Westminster is an increased mistrust in all politicians – a bad reputation that will take years to recover. MPs looking for support are doing the right thing, if explaining their actions and apologizing at the same time, but sadly they are unlikely to discover too much sympathy along the way.

The backlash will be felt in Thursday’s local and European elections, when protest votes will likely be at an all-time high. Brown will order a reshuffle, Cameron will call for a general election to cleanse Parliament and Clegg will wave and shout from the sidelines like an under-11s football manager, eager for improvement but unable to achieve it.

All politicians are going about this the wrong way, though. Instead of blaming each other or the rules, they should be blaming themselves and their own greed.

Only then will people start to accept that they are sincere in their wish for change and begin to regain trust in their servants once more.

Whilst eating I saw on the BBC that Wendy Alexander, the leader of the Scottish Labour Party has resigned.

I am using a pay as you go internet booth, so I cannot provide too much detail as my time is short – although I am sure that John can provide further details later.

However, this is hugely significant. Gordon Brown has just been dealt another blow and Labour Party members and supporters must surely be wondering how soon it will be before he receives the fatal blow.

Update (from John): Here is Ms Alexander’s resignation statement in full.