Last month, I made a few comparisons between the standards expected of local authority members and those demonstrated by national Government members. So, how about John Prescott giving up his entitlement to the Dorneywood country estate because the cont

Last month, I made a few comparisons between the standards expected of local authority members and those demonstrated by national Government members.

So, how about John Prescott giving up his entitlement to the Dorneywood country estate because "the controversy surrounding it was making it difficult for him to do his job"? (What job, by the way?)

I want you to imagine, as Council Tax payers, how you would feel if every county council member who had ever been chairman of the council had hung on to the chauffeur-driven car.

We would have had to provide a new one for each subsequent holder of that office.

Would you feel satisfied if just one of them then announced that he or she was now giving up that perk? I rather think not.