The MPs’ expenses scandal just won’t go away - no matter how hard Labour tries to find new distractions.

The Calman Commission has published it’s report and there will now be an almighty brouhaha about the merits of the proposals it contains. Before I turn to write about this political fudge like no other I think it important to state that while any changes to the way Scotland is governed will of course have important and long term consequences, the Commission’s report will not be enough of a distraction to take the Scottish public’s mind off the recent Westminster expenses scandals.

There is a reason for this, in fact there are five reasons, and if Labour leaders had any sense they would waken up to them and initiate greater corrective action than they have been prepared thus far to take.

The first reason the story will live on relates to the state of denial that Labour has been in since it was agreed (following a High Court decision won against the Speaker and the Parliament’s Fees Office) to publish MP’s expenses in full – it is that there is far, far more dirty linen still to be hung out to dry.

What we have been reading about of late has been like the slow Chinese water torture of a single drip of cold, cold water followed by another, and then another, landing on the foreheads of the honorable and some not so honorable members at Westminster Palace (Remember it started with the Labour Lords before moving on to the MPs).

The revelations have essentially been leaks, with photocopies and scans of expenses claims that – because they are accurate – cannot be denied.

Indeed all the members know this because their expenses claims for the last parliamentary session have been available and ready for release since last year – but it was decided, with the Prime Minister’s complicit agreement - that they should not be released until July of this year, during the summer recess.

This attempt to stymie political accountability, believing that the public would have its summer holidays on its mind, was too much for some who had access to the information and so the leaking began. Now that the speaker, Michael Martin, has decided to publish all the details on the Parliamentary website with immediate effect, members of the public will trawl through every MP’s claims – writing to the local papers, complaining on radio talk shows – giving the story fresh legs but at a more local level.

The second reason is that nationally the media will be looking at new, previously unavailable angles to cover – the top fifty best and worst, the most frugal the most spendthrift – but good or bad, every MP and every voter who happens to look at a newspaper or television will be reminded of how so many MPs have had their snouts in a very deep trough. We will have the whole story all over again – only this time it will be a blizzard of information.

Given how Labour claimed back in 1997 to be fighting sleaze – and given how the tax avoidance, dubious claims and downright fiddling has claimed Labour Ministers and ex-Ministers it is no surprise that the public takes an especially critical view towards the Government now.

The third reason is that the embarrassment, shame and downright fraud of the often unbelievable claims has caused some members to announce what could be called their early retirement at the next election. Others have been less lucky and in a futile attempt by party bosses to look righteous in the eyes of the public have been deselected by their parties. This week’s news that Scotland’s first such casualty – Jim Devine, the Labour member for Livingston – has been removed as a party candidate all helps to keep the story in front of people.

The fourth reason is that this political circus is not taking place during some friendly, laid-back celebrations of parliamentary democracy but in the run-up to a general election where the very future of Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom is at stake. Such a context means that for at least the next ten months the SNP will, directly or indirectly, use every opportunity to remind the public of the sorry mess that so many Labour clowns have gotten themselves into.

Labour – and the electorate – will not be allowed to forget about the issue, for every last detail will be regurgitated – just as Labour threw those accusations of sleaze at the Tories in 1997. The fact that Labour’s record on sleaze would eventually go on to be far worse in a shorter period of time is an irony the punters never contemplated. That the SNP is failing on so many fronts politically and like any party has its own skeletons in the cupboard will not, fortunately for Salmond and Co. be on the public’s radar.

The fifth reason that the story will not subside is that there is every possibility that some Labour MPs will actually face prosecution. While we may laugh at the Tories that have had their floating duck islands (that the ducks rejected) paid for them or their moat cleaned the Labour members that claimed on long paid-off mortgages is no laughing matter for the authorities.

If a Holyrood legislator such as Tommy Sheridan must, as an example to us all, face prosecution for alleged perjury - then so too must Westminster legislators face prosecution for alleged fraud. The political downside for Labour is, as we cans see with Sheridan, that the courts move far slower than political machinations and so we can expect to still be reminded of this saga next year – or beyond.

Many Labour seats are now drenched in the stench of a scandal that has turned the public into a nation of sickened, saddened cynics. The electorate’s anger is palpable and for it a general election cannot come quick enough. The Calman Commission is no political Dyno-Rod, no amount of political gestures or even earnestly well thought through policies can keep Labour’s nemesis out off the news headlines until the election comes. Labour will have to take this hammering on the chin – and hope it will be in a fit state to carry on afterwards.

Brian Monteith is policy director of ThinkScotland.org