Outside the Luton political bubble!

Even without an expert knowledge of all things politics it's always interesting to see how unknowledgeable/disinterested other people can be about the subject matter of this blog.

For example, at the weekend I had a brief chat with a lady from Luton, who was in Scotland to visit her daughter at university. Ever the diplomat, I resisted the temptation to ask her what she thought of Luton having the dubious honour of being voted top of Britain's 'crap town' league.

However, in view of the prevailing zeitgeist on MPs' expenses, I thought it would be OK to ask her what she thought of Luton South MP Margaret Moran, who infamously 'flipped' her second home designation to her husband's house in Southampton and then spent £22,500 of taxpayers' money on dry rot treatment for it, subsequently tried to brazenly deny she'd done anything wrong when exposed, but later agreed to repay the money in view of the public outcry.

Although the Luton lady was aware of the expenses scandal and seemed to know that Margaret Moran was an MP there, on the other hand she was totally ignorant of the rotten business of the politician's expenses imbroglio, and neither was she aware of the potential challenge to Moran from television presenter Esther Rantzen at the next election.

Of course, there are no doubt many even more ill-informed people in the country - who could not name the prime minister, for example - but amidst the politicos' debate about 'root and branch' reform of the expenses system and more far-reaching constitutional change, it's perhaps a salutary reminder about the limitations of participative democracy.