A sense of proportion

Tory MP is inadevertently too honest about the Conservatives' real public spending plans. Result: Howard Flight is keelhauled by Tory leader, sacked from his senior position, and barred from standing again as a Tory MP - they've even, Stalin-style, unpersoned him on the Tory website.

Tory MP tells racist joke of a virulence even Jim Davidson now avoids to baying crowd of drunken rugby players. Result: Anne Winterton is sacked from senior position... and then cracks another viciously inappropriate joke a few months later. No serious attempt has been made to bar Anne Winterton from remaining as an MP, and the Conservative Party website brags of her many public roles.

(See also the rehabilitation of the Monday Club.)

"Lower than vermin," as Aneurin Bevan said.