THESE are dangerous times. MPs return to their constituencies this weekend to feel the full fury of the people.

One MP, who claimed £4,000 for gardening, has had his lawn dug up; another, who has claimed a dubious £282,731 with her MP husband, has had a window in her office smashed.

Members of the public have every right to be angry. They have been sorely mistreated by those who were meant to represent them. They have been milked by MPs of all parties, and the mood in the country is for a plague far more virulent than swine flu to fall on all their houses.

We must, though, be careful what we wish for. It might just come true.

Where are we going with this? The House of Commons is becoming so discredited that soon it will have no future except a pathetic limp to the next election, without the moral authority to take any big decisions – even though there are huge issues facing us.

But will the General Election bring any relief ? Afterall, David Cameron and his wealthy party of moat-dredgers and poolowners are no better than Gordon Brown and his motley crew of serial flippers and mortgage claimers.

In the meantime, the local and European elections loom. None of the main parties deserves our vote. Yet if all the good and the true stay at home, the extremists of right and left will prosper – and they will do far more damage to our country than a couple score of greedy, arrogant MPs.

We are in a pretty pickle.

The authorities must move fast. There must be rapid inquiries and investigations.

There should be quick sackings, expulsions, deselections and criminal prosecutions, if necessary.

And MPs must move fast, too. They need to get all their claims out in the open so that the public can see that – hopefully – the vast majority of them are beyond reproach.

Then the public must be brave. We must start to believe again that most MPs are well-intentioned and not nest-featherers.

However, after what we have been put through, that is the biggest ask of all.