ON a winter’s day nearly five years ago a piece of legislation came into force that would forever change the nature of democracy in Britain.

Crucially, it was destined irrevocably to alter the relationship between the ordinary citizen and those in charge of our affairs.

At the time, the Freedom of Information Act was known mainly to journalists and those who had vigorously campaigned for its introduction.

Few could have thought at the time that this Act would prove to be a pebble thrown into the pond of public life, the ripples from which were soon to become a shockwave breaking on a complacent Establishment’s shore.

As we know, members of Parliament had to be dragged struggling and screaming to have their noses rubbed in what rapidly became a mess of their own making. They had fought tooth and nail against the very notion of disclosure, even claiming at one stage that constituents’ confidentiality might be compromised if such a dreadful law were actually applied to their honourable selves.

To no avail. From duck houses to homes ‘flipping’, blue movies to claiming for the services of a piano tuner, many MPs were caught with their fiscal pants down. Sadly, the sheer extent of this freeloading tended to obscure the fact that many of our representatives were scrupulously principled as far as claims for reimbursements were concerned.

Today, as the full extent of the latest revelations start to sink in, we can at least console ourselves that New Year’s Day 2005 marked the dawn of an age when nothing would ever be the same again.