For anyone who missed Peter Oborne’s Despatches programme last night on C4 about politicians, it can be summarised as ‘a portrait of a self-obsessed, media-oriented profession noted for protecting their own, as described by a self-obsessed member of the media, a profession noted for protecting its own.’

In an attempt to bring some drama to proceedings, the filming was full of blurred shots of the Palace of Westminster brought swiftly into focus, as if to say “Look, I can show you clearly the murky world of politics”, and breathless shots of Oborne as if he had just run for his life from the building carrying evidence of the latest misdeed.

There were some decent criticisms pointed to, not least the habit of the Standards and Privileges Committee not to actually punish anyone for infringing Parliamentary rules* and the extravagances of the head of the NAO, but nothing that we hadn’t heard before. Saying “Despatches can reveal” over and over doesn’t make it new. And in parts Oborne looked more than a little desperate, accusing Tony Lloyd and the Public Administration Committee of responsibility for delaying the police’s Cash for Honours inquiry simply because they had a couple of meetings with John Yates over the course of, what, a year?

So, a mediocre-to-competent compilation of contemporary dishonourable conduct in Parliament. There’s certainly a good case for better scrutiny of MP’s expenses and proper punishments for infringements, but portraying the place as a hive of scum and villany is taking things a bit far. That’s the job of bloggers.

For what it’s worth, restoring the public’s trust in politics should probably be a two-way street - where have I heard that before? - greater transparency and proper punishment of offenders, in return for more coverage of the multiplicity of honourable endeavours that MPs get no credit for.

*Unless it’s George Galloway because no one minds punishing him, and he in turn revels in it