Why shoot the messenger? Michael Fabricant simply said what we were all thinking

The always-entertaining blonde bombshell that is Lichfield MP 'Mickey Fab' was dropped because he is about to lead a rebellion of Tories concerned about the route of the planned high speed rail line. But the final straw that saw him stripped of his prominent role was his remarks about Mrs Miller.

On the day Willenhall-born Mrs Miller finally bowed to public and political pressure to go over her expenses claims, Mr Fabricant said on Twitter that it was 'about time'.

He hadn't demanded her resignation, he simply expressed an opinion shared by a very significant number of people apart from the Prime Minister and a bunch of others in the Westminster bubble.

And when the party asked him if he'd stand aside for that, he stood his ground. Resignation, Fabbo says, would imply he thought he'd done something wrong. And he doesn't think he has.

His more long-term disagreement with his party leaders, over HS2, is not unique to the MP. Both Staffordshire County Council and Lichfield District Council are formally opposed to the line and both are controlled by the Tories.

The Fabricant affair is actually a far more troubling one for the Tories than the Maria Miller one. Or, at least, it ought to be.

What the party effectively says to its members, as they start campaigning for the council and European elections is this: Claim thousands of pounds more than you should have from the taxpayer for your second home and then make a 32-second perfunctory apology for your attitude and you'll have the full backing of your leader who is even prepared to take an absolute mauling at question time on your behalf.

But speak your mind as well as the views of the majority of the country and your constituents on a matter of trust and integrity in politics as well as a hugely costly and controversial piece of infrastructure and you're sacked.

What neither David Cameron nor Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman, seem to have grasped yet is that it's Michael Fabricant and the Tory councillors in Staffordshire who are going to be knocking doors in the county in the coming weeks and asking people to vote for their candidates in the European elections.

People didn't like what Maria Miller did. Nor are the majority of people won over by HS2. Shooting the messenger is not going to change that.

If cost of living is a crisis, we need something faster than devolution

Ed Miliband is still adamant that the country is in a 'cost of living crisis'. His solution is to promise to devolve £20 billion of taxpayers' money held in Whitehall to city and county regions. This means eventual investment in infrastructure and skills, eventually meaning more businesses create jobs, eventually meaning people have more money to spend.

Meanwhile, on the way back to the office from Birmingham, where Mr Miliband made that announcement, a lady on the Midland Metro grumbled at the £5.70 cost of her return ticket.

She hadn't had the benefit of sitting and listening to Ed Miliband speak at length about the 'cost of living crisis' before he was chauffeured away in a Land Rover.

And it did make me wonder, how many more times will the Metro fare go up before this money has been cascaded down through the councils, the infrastructure's built and we're living in a land of milk and honey where everyone's on at least the living wage?

If it's really a 'crisis', meaning an emergency or an impending catastrophe, we need something now, not several years down the line. If averting disaster can wait for Ed Miliband's devolution masterplan, maybe it's not a crisis in the literal sense at all.