Low expectations

After that, the faked death of former Labour MP John Stonehouse has also got to be up there in terms of political scandal. Quite incredibly, Stonehouse lived in Australia under an assumed name for six weeks after faking his drowning in Miami before being caught. Of all things, he was eventually brought in by police who initially suspected him of being Lord Lucan in a spectacular piece of bad timing for Stonehouse.

And who could forget the Profumo affair, in which War Secretary John Profumo managed to have an affair with a woman ­ Christine Keeler ­ who was simultaneously having it off with a Soviet spy.

Compared to murder and the spilling of state secrets, the seatbelt issue at least seems pretty tame.

Why is it that politicians seem to attract so many scandals though? Maybe it’s the old adage about power corrupting. Or maybe it’s just that at the end of it all it turns out that politicians are just normal human beings, with the same temptations, flaws and foibles as everyone else. The difference here perhaps is simply that the stakes are so much higher.

Any wayward politicos might be wellserved to remember that.