What a surprise. The culture secretary Maria Miller defrauded the taxpayer by dishonestly claiming expenses on a second home her parents live in. Had she been a benefit fraudster, she’d have been jailed. But she’s a cabinet minister, so she’ll be deciding on press regulation instead.

Five years after the Daily Telegraph exposed the industrial scale on which MPs were defrauding us by false expense claims, politicians are as shameless as ever.

No wonder Nigel Farage is a happy man. No matter how repellent his policies, the outsider is reaping the rewards from public disgust at the outrages of the political establishment. He must have been amazed at his luck when Nick Clegg agreed to debate Europe. Clegg, the former outsider, is now the ultimate insider: the cheerleader for the coalition, after breaking all his election promises. (And having made a good living from the EU gravy train.)

Back to Maria Miller. David Cameron has proved as false as Tony Blair in promising to clean up politics. This shameless politician asked the press to drop the matter today. Miller threatened the parliamentary watchdog in a bid to force the commissioner to drop action against her. And her adviser threatened the Telegraph. These people simply don’t care. They have contempt for the taxpayers who are forced to pay to keep the gravy train on the rails. Politicians’ promises are empty words, given cheaply unlike their expense claims.

PS: the Telegraph tonight published the chilling threatening call from Miller’s adviser. The adviser for the minister deciding press freedom.