The heavy price of scandal

It's the latest scandals over MPs' expense claims that could push Gordon Brown from his leadership pedestal. Admittedly, this time it was different - MPs from all three major parties were named and shamed.

However, the UK public is famous for demanding a scapegoat and this time the main man in the firing line is Brown himself.

The scandal over expense claims may prove to be the straw that breaks the camel's back& for Brown and for Labour.

Britain's blame culture will prove the downfall for Brown. After such serious revelations occur, the masses demand justice. They want action, they demand reparation.

A couple of minor parliamentary players apologising and/or stepping down won't be enough to satisfy the public's hunger for blood.

All of Britain's MPs are coming under increasing scrutiny as each day passes. While early reports stated that the leak might have been a breach of the Official Secrets Act, now Scotland Yard is lending support to the notion that if MPs have broken the law, they will be prosecuted.

So how long will it be before more senior MPs are brought into question? Maybe this is something the British press is saving for a rainy day - and there are plenty in the UK.

If the leak was a breach of the Official Secrets Act, this is something that needs to be addressed& what official information should - and is - kept secret.

Is an MP claiming to repair a wooden floor in his second home on expenses something so official that it needs to be kept secret under a law that's designed to protect national security? How is a £100 (Dh580) claim for replacement lightbulbs on par with the threat of another terrorist attack in the UK?

Official secrets are justified - but official cover-ups are not. The British public won't be made fun of, and this incident has taken the biscuit.

Public anger at the government has to be channelled - and what better target than the PM himself?

Voters are generally scared of change until, that is, they're pushed into a corner with no other option but to call for a radical overhaul.

There are two options for British tax-payers at the next general election - vote Labour out or hope that things really 'can only get better'. The other, more likely, option of course is that many simply won't vote. As there isn't currently a 'none of the above' option, the great British public will choose not to turn out at all, leaving it to other voters to sort out the mess and try and decide who is most at fault for the state of the country.

Money makes the world go around. But when it runs out, the question is not how it makes the world go around, but whether what little is left can still do so.

With the tax man as Prime Minister, the UK's focus is all about the money, or lack thereof.

Brown wasn't popular for bailing out the banks (effectively nationalising them) with tax-payers' money, but did redeem himself slightly after telling them they couldn't take the hard-earned British cash and spend it in annual bonuses.

However, this won't be enough to save his seat - or even for him to be remembered for any significant amount of time.

During a recession, of course, cut-backs have to be made. However, perhaps these cut-backs wouldn't have been so serious if tax-payers' money hadn't been tipped down the drain by fat-cat MPs claiming for pornography and cleaning staff on expenses.

It's not really a surprise, then, that the draft budget was thrown out by a Labour-majority committee.

Now David Cameron is calling for an election - straight after the local and EU elections. Of course he is - he's now in a prime position to swoop in under Brown.

Brown has kept some of his promises - but now it's turning into a popularity contest for him.

The withdrawal of British troops from Iraq was nothing more than a popularity bid for Brown - on the issue that had previously proven a major pitfall for Tony Blair. In historic terms, war is unpopular with the British public. Even Winston Churchill suffered a landslide defeat in the 1945 elections, with not just a change of prime minister, but a change of government.

The British involvement in the Iraq war was never supported by the UK public - or indeed a significant proportion of the government. This decision - one of Blair's most unpopular - even led to Robin Cook's (then Leader of the House of Commons, now deceased) resignation.

Now Brown has pulled troops out of Iraq - some say to help speed recovery during one of the worst recessions Britain has ever seen.

It's not cost-cutting only that Brown had on his mind through this act, however. It's more of a move to repair the wood in his slowly-cracking seat-legs.

The same action is sure to follow of the conflict in Afghanistan - the forgotten war in which no-one remembers why the British were involved in the first place. Or why the British are still there in fact.

Someone will have to go down for this latest in a long line of parliamentary scandals - a plague o'er all the houses.