Parliament will remain tained until a new election is held Photo: PA  The conflagration was so intense that its glow could be seen in the distant lanes of Surrey and Kent. It was 175 years ago this week that the medieval Palace of Westminster, the home of the nation's parliament for 300 years, was burned to the ground.  The calamitous fire was caused by the incineration of tally sticks – notched pieces of wood that for generations had signified the payment of tax and which had been stored under the House of Lords. Some years after the Exchequer had stopped using this method of counting, a great pile had accumulated and rather than give them away as firewood to the poor, which would have been sensible, it was decided to burn them.  On the night of October 16, 1834, they began to load the sticks into the furnace. The blaze was so great that people walking on the floor above could feel the heat. Soon, the vaults were set alight and the ancient, mainly wooden, building was an inferno. Thousands came from miles around to gawp at the loss of the nation's legislative home (though, mercifully, the splendid Westminster Hall survived intact). Among the throng on the banks of the Thames that night was the country's greatest painter, JMW Turner, who made a sketch and later captured the spectacle in several magnificent oils.  One spectator said the fire was "certainly the grandest thing we have ever witnessed" and commentators called it divine retribution for the gluttony and activities of the legislature, notably in passing the Reform Act just two years earlier. Imagine what they would say today were the familiar Gothic building that replaced the old palace to catch fire: if extending the electoral franchise and the abolition of the rotten boroughs was considered worthy of the wrath of God, what about rapacity on a grand scale?  News that perhaps half the 646 MPs might have to repay some money or provide an explanation of their claims either because they played fast and loose with the system of allowances and expenses, or were indifferent to the rules, is staggering. Letters are to be sent to MPs today by Sir Thomas Legg (how they must wish the posties were already on strike) notifying them of the findings of his investigation into the abuse of system uncovered by this newspaper earlier in the year.  If MPs had hoped that the summer recess would bring some relief from the nightmare that descended upon them they were sorely mistaken. If Sir Thomas has uncovered widespread misuse of taxpayers' money it also belies the efforts of Speaker Bercow and others to maintain that this was confined to a small number. Yet talking to MPs at the party conferences it is clear that many are deeply aggrieved over what has happened to them. While in public they are contrite, in private most are plain livid. They believe they were entitled to claim the full whack under the rules and it was their business how they went about doing so. One Tory MP said he felt that Parliament and the political system had been irreparably damaged by the leak of the computer disk containing the information that they wanted kept confidential – and he was among the so-called "good guys" who had hardly claimed anything.  We are now likely to witness a great exodus from Parliament at the next general election in the spring. Some MPs just don't think it is worth the candle any more and resent being turned into glorified social workers who are not expected to have any paid employment outside Parliament; others will have to stand down because they have so gratuitously abused the system that they will never get back in.  There is a rumour that the report from Sir Christopher Kelly, whose Committee on Standards in Public Life has been looking at MPs' pay and expenses, will recommend a five-year moratorium on former ministers taking a job on leaving the government that is in any way connected with the portfolio they have just relinquished. At present ex-ministers cannot take a job in the private sector for at least three months; and for the first two years they are expected to consult the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before doing so. It is said there are ministers planning to stand down early before tougher rules are introduced. There was also talk at Manchester of MPs already hatching plans to circumvent the new regulations.  It is to the nation's detriment that our Parliament got itself into this awful mess, though as its power and sovereignty are leached away to Brussels or usurped by the judiciary many MPs sometimes wonder what they are there for in any case. Until the election provides some sort of purgation, this parliament will forever be tainted, fairly or not, with the great expenses scandal. The question then will be whether it is possible to rebuild the institution in the way that the new palace rose so magnificently from the ashes after the fire of 1834.
If a fire in 1834 was 'divine retribution', then parliament today is a    candidate for God's wrath, says Philip Johnston.