Be ye never so high, the law is above you ” – Lord Justice Denning

The antics in parliament brought that to my mind. I know he said it, but I can’t find the reference anywhere.

He also said: “The House of Commons starts its proceedings with a prayer. The chaplain looks at the assembled members with their varied intelligence and then prays for the country”.

Twenty odd years ago after one of my periods of self-inflicted recession I owed the tax man a weighty six figure sum. In due course the bloodhounds were on to me, and I was summoned to meet two officials.

You might imagine they would be in the traditional investigative roles of Mr. Nice and Mr. Nasty. This was not the case: they were Mr. Nasty and Mr. Extremely Bloody Unpleasant.

It was very, very worrying but in the end I did not try to bluff it out and claim I’d been perfectly justified in not paying the taxes. I told the truth: I am downwright incompetent. I admitted I was wrong and we came to an agreement about how I was going to pay it all off.

This seemed to me fair and reasonable even if the men in question didn't. The key exchange took place when they said to me, "You owe us £XXX,000" and I replied, "No, I don’t. Then they said to me, "Prove it."

Every one of the wretches who has been accused of stealing our money, starting with Brown and Cameron, should be forced to prove they didn't, and if they did, forced to pay back the money with interest where appropriate.

They should be subjected to the normal procedures which operate when somebody is guilty. Can anyone tell me why not?