I doubt that there is much public appetite to afford MPs the luxury of first class travel following last year’s expenses scandal.

Given the nature of their work and the fact that most other comparable professionals would be allowed first class rail travel by their respective organisations without a second thought, there is an argument for them to be allowed it.

However, those private sector employers pay for those first class tickets themselves as opposed to going cap in hand to a rather irritable electorate, who have little time for the sob stories of MPs.

Another problem which this argument throws up for MPs is the general feeling in the public that MPs consider themselves to be deserving special treatment, which the common man is not afforded.

Take for example the comments made by Sir Nicholas Winterton, who made a very literal distinction between those who travel in first and standard class. Despite this Tory buffoon having a distinctly Dickensian attitude towards the public or the ‘different type of people’, it is the seemingly more ‘reasonable’ arguments which other MPs have put forward which are the most worrying.

The Liberal Democrats’ Sandra Gidley told reporters: “As a woman travelling alone late at night I feel safer in first, particularly on the later trains when there are often a number of people who have been drinking.”

So if this is not acceptable for her, then why is it acceptable for everybody else who cannot afford to travel in first class?