A SURPRISE call yesterday by the leader of the Liberal Democrats for the Speaker of the House of Commons to stand down is the clearest indication yet of the seriousness of the collapse of credibility of MPs and Parliament as a result of the expenses scandal unfolding daily in the UK.

As the Times Online headed it, Speaker’s Fate Sealed as Clegg Breaks Ranks. Whether the man nicknamed by his opponents as Gorbals Mick is merely a convenient scapegoat or, as the Lib Dem leader contends, the leading apologist for the gravy-train expenses system, is largely irrelevant.

The daily disclosures have confirmed what so many UK voters feared: a seat in Westminster is not just an opportunity to stick a nose in the trough, but fingers in the till as well.

The backlash that will force reforms on the Commons will have implications for all parliamentary democracies, including Guernsey.

For at its heart, the expenses scandal has been one of cover-up – abuse of the system became second nature for MPs because it was secret – and the role of the UK’s Freedom of Information legislation in exposing the mother of parliament as the mother of all fiddles was vital.

Just as the credit crunch has demonstrated that ordinary savers will no longer tolerate anything less than a 100% guarantee of their money back and regulators have to adjust to that new landscape, so, politically, there will be a seismic shift because the tectonic plates of truth have shifted. Not only will elected representatives have to be above reproach, so they have to be seen to be above reproach.

Parliament’s reluctance to submit to the FoI’s provisions was the clearest indication of the rot within and now it has been exposed and the trust in MPs destroyed, overwhelming transparency will have to emerge before it can be restored.

Guernsey, of course, has no freedom of information, no commitment to it and not even a milk-and-water code like that in Jersey.

That is no longer a sustainable state of affairs.

The days of taking things at face value have disappeared and that collateral damage must inevitably spread to Guernsey.