Maria Miller has finally resigned her office, on the basis that the affair is proving to be a distraction to the work of her party.
All very well and dandy, as far as that goes. However, she and some in her party have not learned the fundamental lesson from this. Irrespective of whether she really believes that it was OK to only repay £5,800 out of the £45,000 that the independent parliamentary commissioner for standards had previously recommended, the voters do not think that this was right.
Like it or not MPs cannot be seen to be milking taxpayers' money for their own personal benefit.
Public service means just that, the role is for the benefit of the "public" not for the MP's personal gain.
The fact that neither she nor her leader seems to have got that point yet indicates a vast disconnect between some of those in Westminster and the voters.
