This may surprise you, but I’m one of those people who happens to believe we don’t pay members of Parliament enough.

Unfortunately, that belief has been tested more than I care to admit over recent weeks, as some of the antics in the big top at the foot of the Royal Mile aim to undermine any semblance of credibility I can muster in support of such a proposition. I can’t even argue that the odd Coco performance is the exception that proves the rule, for, as exceptions go, they are rather more prevalent than the theory could sustain.

But it’s not just the Greens – who, frankly, take the clown show to new levels each week – from being perturbed by the “demonisation of rape”, to some nonsense or other about privilege, to boycotting Microsoft. All delivered with the seriousness of a 12” LP played at 45, while gesticulating with the grace of an arm-flailing air tube at a car dealership.

Parliamentary committees last week added to the debit side of the balance sheet, as ministers struggled with the basics of their portfolios – only, in some instances, to be outdone by ordinary members simply struggling full stop.

Yet for all that, I still hold to the principle that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, and to get the best, you have to be willing to pay them more.

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