There’s a definite temptation to sum the ‘Sadiq Khan was bugged‘ story as ‘Member of Parliament treated like a prole, doesn’t like it’. Nobody seems worried about the other people who may have been bugged while talking to Khan’s constituent in prison. Presumably those conversations are fair game.

Surely, if Khan has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear, yes? What’s he worried about? The same thought struck me when reading about the government wanting to use lie detectors to trap benefit cheats. I think there’s a good case for hooking the microphones in the Houses of Parliament to the same technology. If no MP would ever stop so low as to lie to - sorry, mislead - his colleagues, how could they possibly object?

When you think of the cost, in both lives and money, recent misleading of parliament has cost us, surely there’s a case for every political statement uttered to get a computerised thumbs up or down. Think of the money that could be saved. Much more than the £0.7 billion benefit fraud costs the UK each year, I’ll bet.

And why are MPs barred from filing their tax returns online? If the system is insecure and a tabloid newspaper did get its hands on an MP’s return, there’d be no trouble if the details were above board, surely? ‘MP files timely and accurate tax return’ isn’t going to shift many editions.

And bugging could be a useful time and labour-saving device when it comes to MPs’ expenses. If only there had been a tap on Derek Conway’s phone. All that money he squittered on his sons would still be in government coffers.

What’s that? MPs are entitled to their privacy? Oh, OK. As you were.