Well, it is, isn`t it? Speaker Martin finally saw the light yesterday and delivered his 33 second statement of farewell. About time too and it may have taken 300 years to get rid of a duff Speaker, but it has been worth the wait. For too long he defended the indefensible and continued to bring the game into disrepute not only by shelling out more and more taxpayers money to try and cover up the expenses abuses but also by treating the few remaining honourable members to a bout of ungentlemanly conduct and unsporting behaviour.

If it was the Football Association sitting in judgment, he would have faced a lifelong ban from the game and a hefty fine. As it is, Martin will shuffle off to the House of Lords with a very generous pension, a daily attendance allowance of £174 and access to the kind of privileges which only elevation to the peerage can bring. It`s the stuff of Alice in Wonderland. In the real world, you couldn`t make it up. But this isn`t the real world. This is a mad, mad, mad, mad one. And it shows.