LAST night’s damp ending to the weekend may have put a dampener on a few barbecues, but most people should be returning to work this morning with a touch of sunburn on their forehead and a smile on their face.

From coast to Pennines, it has been a glorious Bank Holiday to uplift the soul.

And how we need it.

Putting aside the disappointments of the football, the last three weeks have been bitterly depressing for the true British patriot who believes in honesty, decency and democracy. Day after day, our way of life has come under threat as MP after MP has been shown to have a strange concept of honesty and decency.

Yesterday, Health Secretary Alan Johnson spoke about the need to reform democracy.

In a wide ranging article, he suggested replacing our First Past the Post electoral system with a form of Proportional Representation called Alternative Vote Plus.

There is merit in many of his ideas, but at the moment all the public wants is a form of democracy which creates MPs who are not only in it for themselves.

The political parties’ first job should be to clear out those MPs whose expense claims are indefensible so that at the next election, whenever it comes, the public can have confidence in all candidates.

Conservative leader David Cameron – never mind his claim for wisteria-pruning – seems to have grasped this. In contrast, the Labour leadership appears caught in two minds as to whether it is alright to avoid capital gains tax (it is, if you’re Gordon Brown’s friends like Jack Straw and James Purnell, but it isn’t if Gordon doesn’t like you, as Hazel Blears has found).

Once we have candidates of decent and honest character, we can proceed to a General Election, and then the new Parliament can consider reform.

But first, the clear-out. Refreshed by the glorious weekend, the party leaders must start it. And quickly, because this day-after-day drip-drip of despondency is bringing down the country and its fragile economy.