Legislating for nepotism

If this has been a bad week for the Conservatives, it has been even worse for politics as a whole. The Derek Conway affair, so hot on the heels of the various controversies about donations to the Labour Party and to the campaigns of individual Labour politicians running for office, inevitably generates loose talk about "snouts in the trough". Mr Conway's misdemeanour is a more clear-cut political scandal, not only because it involves looting the public purse, but also because his family benefited personally from his largesse with our money. Inevitably, it has given rise to calls for a ban on MPs employing family members, as is the case in the US.