In recent weeks, I have appreciated that there have been some advantages in not having a taxpayer-funded second home! Nevertheless, despite being an Inner London MP, it can take a while to get to Parliament when there is no tube and the buses are full - about a 90 minute walk from Fulham. Many of my constituents were making similar or even longer walks, faced with the tube strike.
By chance, 90 minutes is the length of time the Prime Minister has been talking today, first at PMQs, and now making his incredible statement on "constitutional renewal". Brown's rhetoric has reached new levels of unreality and hypocrisy. He says he wants the Government and the House of Commons to be "more accountable to the people" - only days after appointing 7 members of the House of Lords to the Cabinet. He says that "we must all face up to the expenses issue" - he's a bit late on this one. He is going to publish the expenses of all MPs going back the last three years. He does need to keep up here, that's what the Daily Telegraph have got already, and even they, after 22 daily instalments, had to conclude that the news agenda had moved on. Brown's statement was met with derision from the Opposition parties, and resigned boredom from his own side.
The only man in the Chamber who looked at all active was Ed Balls, who was moving around, catching little conversations with any Labour MP who would give him the time. With Damian McBride's departure, and Ian Austin's promotion, Balls is the main Brown cheerleader. In fact, Ed Balls is to Gordon Brown as Andrei Lugovoi is to Vladimir Putin - a guided assassin, dripping poison wherever he goes, and contaminating the environment for everyone else.
As Sir George Young accurately describes, the Commons these days only meets for two meaningful days a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Tonight, as I do the long walk home, I will wonder if even those days are worthwhile. The malaise around the place has reached a new high, and anyone watching today's events will wonder what course of action could lead to proper reform other than calling a General Election, leading to the convening of a new Parliament