Don't they understand decent conduct?

It's the arrogance that does the real damage. The tape of Lord Taylor of Blackburn released by the Sunday Times reveals a man so sure of his worth as a paid consultant that he can suggest that his services comes "cheap" at £100,000 a shot.

There is already an assumption that "they are all at it" in Westminster and these revelations merely feed into the public cynicism about the political process. But I defy anyone to listen to the words of Lord Taylor without feeling disgust at the profound smugness of a man who clearly feels it is his right to use his influence on the legislative process in favour of his clients.

The four peers caught out in the Sunday Times sting, offering to do paid work for an undercover journalist posing as a businessman, have all denied breaching the rules. But this only shows how spectacularly they are missing the point about decent conduct in public life.

From "cash for questions" to "cash for honours" successive generations of politicians showed that they failed to understand that the reputation of parliament doesn't just depend on politicians staying on the right side of the law. They need to demonstrate that their financial affairs are conducted in a way that ordinary voters would understand as decent.

It now emerges that one in five Lords earns money from consultancy work, suggesting that a large minority of peers believe that representing outside interests in parliament is part of their job.

There are now calls for tougher sanctions for peers who breach the rules. Astonishingly the only punishment for those who step out of line is to be named and shamed in the court of public opinion. So the best we can do at present to Lords Truscott, Moonie, Taylor and Snape is write their names into history as the men who have brought ignominy on their party and position as legislators.

When Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister he surprised everyone by announcing that constitutional reform would be his first priority. He must now be regretting that he didn't act sooner. But he had his chance. Indeed, he has now packed his government of national emergency with peers, including Lords Mandelson, Myners, Davies and Lady Vadera in the Business Department. There is an anti-democratic instinct at work here - and this case shows how urgently it needs to be redressed.

This sordid business matters because the authority of the Lords has increased since the expulsion of all but a rump of hereditary peers. The second chamber has grown as an institution as it has dared to challenge the Government. This makes the behaviour of the four Labour peers all the more disappointing because it sets back the cause of an institution beginning to redeem itself.

* Martin Bright is former political editor of the New Statesman