PAUL JOHNSON: The Corruption of Britain. “Both ministers and MPs have become careless and insensitive to the way in which they handle the taxpayers’ money. However, during the last year the public has become aware of just how fundamentally things have changed. . . . The public is outraged, and politicians, as a class, have become unpopular, even hated. If an election were held today New Labour would be reduced to a small minority. But there’s a year to go before an election becomes mandatory, and more revelations of political corruption are expected.”