THE political elite worry that the general public is becoming disengaged from politics.

The Tessa Jowell affair should explain a lot to them.

It is an extremely complicated affair and it may well be that Ms Jowell has done nothing wrong in the strictest sense of whether she broke a Parliamentary code.

But what do those of us living outside the Westminster village learn from the affair?

Firstly, she is married to David Mills, a tax avoidance lawyer. The rest of us struggle to pay our tax, partly out of a sense of duty, and partly because we can't afford a tax avoidance lawyer. But we are just the little people.

Secondly, she is married to a lawyer who is extremely friendly with the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. One of the many mysteries surrounding Tony Blair is why he is so uncritically close to the right-wing Italian who teeters on the brink of corruption. Of course there's no link between Mr Blair, Mr Mills and Mr Berlusconi - but the affair makes the little people wonder.

Thirdly, the affair is about Ms Jowell taking out a £400,000 loan that was paid off days later by money that had been moved through seven or eight off-shore bank accounts.

To us little people, £400,000 is a life-changing amount of money. It is a Lottery win. To Ms Jowell, it's just something that crops up on her bank statement via the Bahamas, Gibraltar and Switzerland, no questions apparently asked.

To us little people, clearing off our mortgages is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. To Ms Jowell, it's something that happens on a regular basis, no questions apparently asked.

Us little people in the cold North-East are worrying how we are going to cope with a 25 per cent increase in gas bills and an 18 per cent increase in electricity bills. Us little people are fuming about council tax rises twice the rate of inflation. Again.

And then we see the Tessa Jowell affair. Which follows the David Blunkett affair in which our Home Secretary - tasked with easing our crime worries - was desperate to get a visa for a nanny to look after his lovechild with a wealthy American publisher whom he'd met in an exclusive nightclub.

Do we trust these people in Government to understand our real problems? Or do we just turn away from politics and get on with our real lives in the real world?