A spokesman for the Speaker of the House of Commons resigned today after misleading a journalist.
Mike Granatt has done the honourable thing, but the circumstances of his departure raise more questions about Michael Martin.
It is an open secret that many MPs are very unhappy with his performance as Speaker, and they have good reason to be.
Granatt resigned after denying that the Speaker's wife had run up a £4,000 taxi bill on shopping trips. He had claimed she was accompanied by an official at all times and was buying food for official occasions.
It has now emerged Mrs Martin was in fact with her housekeeper and was off buying herself new hats and the like.
This latest example of improper use of funds comes hot on the heels of a complaint that the Speaker flew his family down from Glasgow using air miles that had been accumulated on official business.
There have been persistent rumblings about his high-handed attitude to many of the servants of the House, and ugly stories about his wife complaining about having to go through the same security procedures as everyone else.
All of this makes his position untenable. The office of Speaker is one of the few in politics that is by and large untainted by any sleaze or partisanship, or was before Gorbals Mick took the chair.
For a start, his election broke the convention that the Speakership should rotate between Labour and Tory MPs. He succeeded Betty Boothroyd, a former Labour MP, over the heads of much better qualified candidates from the Conservative benches.
Ming Campbell would have been a much better choice back in 2000.
But the present Speaker has been contentious from day one, with many MPs privately questioning many of his rulings from the chair.
At Prime Minister's Questions last year he caused outrage by trying to block David Cameron from asking about the Labour leadership.
Many of his judgements appear partisan, he seems to have little understanding of the House.
That he is overseeing a parliamentary inquiry into MPs' expenses seems laughable. When compared to his two immediate predecessors, he is an embarassment to the House.
Can anyone seriously imagine the late, much missed Bernard Wetherall or the great Betty allowing themselves to be exposed as misusing public funds?
The Speaker should be above all of that.
It is time for him to retire. The question is, who will replace him? It seems certain that the next Speaker will be chosen from the opposition benches.
Ming is certainly a candidate that would be popular with MPs on all sides, and the small but perfectly-formed Tory John Bercow is known to want the job.
However, they will need to get rid of Mr Martin first.
