Paris Brown may have been foolish to make those statements, but there is something unseemly about middle-aged politicians and journalists slugging it out with a 17-year-old as if they were equals. Carol Grant reports on the aftermath of the youth commissioner saga.

I'm currently working my way through House of Cards on TV, the wonderful American remake of the original British political drama written by (now Lord) Michael Dobbs. In it, an unknown congressman is being groomed for higher political office. He has a shady past but that's no problem, as a public stance of repentance and redemption is deemed to play well with voters.