It's safe to say that MPs Elliott Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor have never displayed the best judgement. Certainly their expenses claims could have done with a bit more attention (and honesty). However, their latest desperate attempt to escape justice over the expenses scandal may well be their most impressive blunder yet.
The Thoughtless Three are apparently trying to invoke the 1689 Bill of Rights to claim immunity to prosecution, on the rather dubious claim that filling out expenses forms is one of the "Proceedings in Parliament" that the Bill of Rights sought to protect.
In their straw-clutching, they don't seem to have considered the implications of arguing that the Bill of Rights is still an active and enforceable piece of legislation.
The granting of Parliamentary Privileges, such as free speech in the House, is only one of a number of protections that the Bill of Rights provides. One of the others, which applies to all citizens rather than just MPs, is:
That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void
That means, arguably, that vast numbers of fines that are currently being dished out by police officers, council staff and others without conviction in a court of law are illegal. Most notably, as the redoubtable Neil Herron of Metric Martyrs fame has long argued, since the Road Traffic Act 1991 most parking fines have been "decriminalised", making them just such a "fine and forfeiture".
I'm not one of those people who attempts to dismiss things like the Bill of Rights as irrelevant or unlawful simply on the grounds of its antiquity. Far from it - indeed, it is this Bill that laid down many fundamental principles of our Consitution and that gave us crucial protections against the power of the State and the Crown.
However, I do dislike it when such laws are cherry-picked for the benefit of a privileged few, and ignored when it comes to the rights of the many. Why should Morley, Devine and Chaytor get the protection of the Bill of Rights, but the other 60 million of us be refused that very same protection?
It seems pretty unlikely to me that Morley, Devine and Chaytor's dodgy dealings will come under the protected heading of "Proceedings", but that will be because their activities were not protected by Parliamentary Privilege. The Bill of Rights itself still stands - for all of us.
Now that these Westminster triads have drawn attention once more to this lynchpin of our constitution, the Bill of Rights 1689 should be enforced properly and billions of pounds of on-the-spot fines and parking fines should be cancelled.
What's sauce for the goose is, as they say, sauce for the gander.
