There’s right and there’s wrong. And then there’s politics, or so I couldn’t help thinking as the Equitable saga rumbled on last week.

   The big guns from most political parties turned up for a debate into the debacle at the House of Commons, with one exception. Chancellor Gordon Brown.

   It reminded me of the famous court scene in the film A Passage to India , where the absent Mrs Moore casts a shadow over the entire proceedings. At one point I almost thought members would break out into a chant calling for “GorDON  Brown…. GorDON  Brown,” just as the mob in the film called for “MissUS Moore, MissUS Moore,” before the riot broke out.

   All my very favourite Labour MPs were there (well almost all). These are people who have dedicated their lives to helping the less well-off, to social justice, and to the victims of scandal and corruption. Never have I heard such collective claptrap from so many lips in such a short space of time, as they rushed to defend the Government’s position.

    If it hadn’t been so comic, it would have been tragic. I don’t know how they can look themselves in the mirror. Treasury secretary Ruth Kelly was there spinning the same old cracked record.

   The Tories and Libdems, though, at least are talking sense, and are determined that an inquiry into the scandal should be opened by the Parliamentary Ombudsman.