Even if he was never going to be high up my preferences (let's be honest, he was fifth out of a field of four for me), and I agree with many sentiments expressed that Mark Oaten has been a bit foolish, I would never want anybody to be brought down by the odious rags that are the British gutter press in such a way. But there is one aspect of this whole sorry business that we must not allow to be quietly forgotten - that there was a burglary of an MP's offices last Wednesday night or whenever it was.

In the end, this has proven a far more serious breach of parliamentary security than either Fathers for Justice or the Otis Ferry brigade, albeit that they were much higher profile simply because their antics were intended to be very visible. We simply cannot have people wandering around the Palace of Westminster able to access MP's offices, or anywhere else really, without authorization.

If Mark can stomach it he needs to play his part. If there is the slightest hint that the burglary is related to the weekend's revelations or that Rupert's ruffians were involved they should face very serious consequences (as should whoever did it - but particularly if people are wandering around able to collect information for publication against MPs) as should their "controllers" whoever that turns out to be.

Sergeant-at-Arms needs to come clean about what changes have been made to Palace security since last year's very public antics. We are being told that the idea of security services being permitted to tap MP's phone lines has been floated. What need have they to do that when someone obviously can just slip in at the dead of night and get whatever information they want about an MP, constituents they may have dealt with, whatever. I know I can't just walk past the St Stephen's entrance without something not far short of a strip search being performed, so whoever did this must have had very privileged access to the place and if found out should be hung out to dry.