I don’t want to hear the name Ashcroft ever again.

I must have used the “A” word a thousand times as I flitted from studio to studio. And College Green. From BBC Radio 5 Live to Sky News.  Twice. And on to the World at One and BBC News 24.  I was in and out of 4 Millbank half a dozen times.

And I was flattered to be asked to write a piece for tomorrow’s Independent. “Ashcroft’s dirty little secret” was my working title. We shall see if it survives.

Tomorrow, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill returns to the Commons for report stage . I have another new clause down on the Order Paper, backed by around 80 MPs.

I want the House of Lords Appointments Commission to satisfy itself that people who promised to do something to get a peerage, actually did it. It is designed to ensnare the Ashcrofts of this world.

Ashcroft’s confession today neatly makes the point.

During a vote this evening, I chat in the Chamber to my friend Andy Love, the Labour MP for Edmonton. In a jaw dropping revelation he tells me that his Conservative challenger spent £140,000 in the last three months of 2009. Figures released by the Electoral Commission.

When I ask how this vast sum of money was spent Andy tells me it went on 10 glossy publications delivered to every household in the constituency. It all sounds terribly familiar.

How on earth did we allow such things to happen?

That is a question for another day.