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Back in July last year MPs voted for a below inflation pay-rise but stamped on plans to reform the £23,000 Additional Cost Allowance that MPs get to maintain second homes in London.

and mutter to yourself that ten months is a very, very long time in politics.

Remind yourself that 172 members to 144 voted to support an amendment by Islwyn MP Don Touhig to keep the ACA and to subject it only to internal, not external scrutiny. Why shove money into the pockets of accountants, asked Mr Touhig? Was there not "a responsibility not to waste public money?"

External audits would cost millions, he warned and MPs would be "committing ourselves to employing hundreds of accountants who will travel Britain, at great cost to the taxpayer, checking on whether a member in the north of Scotland has spent too much on paper clips".

It turns out they would have been diverted by wildly expensive furniture and moat dredging claims long before they'd made it anywhere near the Scottish border.

As the revelations continue, fingers haven't - thus far - been pointed at Plaid MPs. I notice their parliamentary leader, Elfyn Llwyd has toned down the "spotless" claim a bit mind you, going instead for the line that Plaid MPs have submitted expense claims that have always been "in accordance with the spirit and the letter of the parliamentary guidelines."

Perhaps it's excitement at the parliamentary leader being , perhaps it's just someone's lucky number but Plaid's obsession with the number 7 has returned.

First we had the that were designed to "transform" the country. Now, they've come up with the '7 deadly parliamentary sins'.

Here they are:

The practise of flipping
Climbing the property ladder at the public expense
Claiming a second home discount
Giving the wrong address - ie. claiming that the constituency-based family home is the designated second home
Long distance shopping - the practise of claiming for objects delivered to your second home but used as the first
Tax evasion
and claiming for luxury items.

You may want to add your own idea of what a parliamentary sin is to that list.

Gordon Brown is outlining his own thoughts on what is just about acceptable and what is sinful now. He may, before sitting down, explain what exactly "defying" the rules mean, who is out and who is in.

But from all parties you can't miss one big attempt to tell us that they've got the message: the end of Michael Martin's career as Speaker cannot signal an end to attempts to clean up the parliamentary expenses system.

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