Malik back from purdah

Shahid Malik returned to front-line politics today after being cleared following allegations that he'd broken the ministerial code over his housing arrangements. The story broke at the top of the expenses avalanche, and now looks like small beer after duckhousegate, moatgate, secondhousegate and non-existenthousegate. But old Yella doesn't really care that much whether he did get a cut-price deal from his pal or not. What does matter is his first pronouncement in his new role as Communities Minister. He hit the nail squarely on the head when asked about the recent BNP electoral success. For as we all know, the reason that those racists dead-heads actually have two MEPs is (a) because the political elite have failed this country utterly and (b) millions of lazy people who had a golden opportunity to keep the scumbags out of power sat on their hands when they should have been placing a cross in a box. If you didn't vote, your part of the problem. So feel some shame. Obviously Mr Malik was quick to sweep point (a) under the carpet. Not many politicians are much good at the old self-examination. But at least he said it. And who knows - with all the right noises coming from Catchphrase, Boy George and Ian and Duncan Smith (with whom I'm actually developing some empathy - must be old age) things may actually change. Won't be for a good while yet though.