Cameron, Brown and Clegg were so quick out of the blocks to tell the world that MPs excesses had to be reigned that none of them took on board the Allowance system.
There was one simple solution to stop them. All that needed to be down was to wrap into their salaries and leave MPs to decide how they would run their offices and staff.
But no. They wanted a new regulator called IPSA costing £6m p.a. So £18m so far. And they said it was up to the regulator to set pay. So they recommend a pay increase - long overdue - and guess what the three Leaders have poured cold water on the idea.
A phased in pay rise over five years would have been a better solution (are there by the by any good regulators?) but the only answer is to do away with the Allowance system.