Now that we are several weeks into this scandal over MPs expenses the rage has started to die down and the internet is finally safe to use again, writes Dan Wainwright.

The anger has reached such a boiling point this month that the only way I could even sit at my computer would be to use oven gloves and that is hardly helpful when trying to press little keys.

It is difficult to work out just how corrupt the 646 people we chose to represent us and make our laws actually are but the contents of their expense sheets have nonetheless provided a fascinating insight.

Clearly there is something rather odd about someone who actually has the time and the memory to submit a receipt for an 88p bath plug.

It conjures images of Jacqui Smith in fingerless woollen gloves, hunched over an almost melted candle counting up all her pennies and working out exactly what she is owed.

Surely as home secretary Ms Smith must have so many slips of paper lying around – and all our emails and personal details to sift through in the name of security – that she wouldn’t really think to stick that receipt from Wilkinson or Focus on her sheet.

But it turns out that she apparently does. Arguably, however, she has still been acting within the rules by claiming something that is necessary for her job as MP. She can hardly get on with the business of spending millions of pounds on a totalitarian identity card scheme if she isn’t able to fill her bath properly without all the water draining away. Imagine what all the civil servants who work for her would be doing. They’d be too caught up with trying to cover their noses with their ties while she ponged out the office to actually complete the job.

Then there’s that rather shocking news that Alistair Darling claimed £1,400 for an accountant to do his tax returns. Quite aside from the cheek of making us pay for it, isn’t it worrying that the man in charge of getting us out of a recession – the man responsible for the entire country’s financial situation – cannot even work out his own tax bill? Obviously it’s a big job what with all the receipts for the £70,000 he spent on his family home in five years. But surely, if he is Chancellor of the Exchequer, he should be able to give it a go. Tax doesn’t have to be taxing, so says Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Finally there is talk of getting an independent body to regulate MPs’ expenses. I hope this never happens. If we cannot trust our MPs, as elected by the people, to govern themselves then what right do they have to govern us?

We should of course remember that none of this is remotely new. I’m reminded of the wonderful exchange in the Blackadder series set in the time of George III when Baldrick ran for Parliament:

Blackadder: Now then; criminal record…
Baldrick: Absolutely not.
Blackadder: Oh, come on, Baldrick, you’re going to be an MP, for God’s sake! I’ll just put fraud and sexual deviancy…