IT HASN'T been a good few weeks in which to be an MP. Dodgy donations, iffy expenses claims, jobs for the boys (and the wives, mothers and second cousins) - the headlines and innuendos have come thick and fast.

And those we elect to represent us in the Commons have only themselves to blame.

The Derek Conway affair - the Tory MP effectively sacked from the party for paying his son a salary for a job he was not doing - has opened a Pandora's box for MPs.

Commons Speaker Michael Martin is to chair a "root and branch" review of the parliamentary expenses system though, remarkably, his committee is not intending to report until October.

Meanwhile, the Standards and Privileges Committee, made up of MPs, says members should be required to register family members employed by them and paid from the public purse within two minutes.

The clash between Mr Martin's review and the standards committee just adds further to the mire of confusion surrounded these issues.

The fact is that much of the expenses process in Parliament is antiquated and out of touch with the real world.

For example, we doubt if there is a private sector company in the country that allows staff to claim any expenses without a receipt.

Yet MPs can spend up to £250 without one.

Reform is vital.

The alternative is for public faith in MPs to be further - perhaps even permanently - eroded.