There’s no getting away this week from reminders of our parliamentarians’ expenses — even in the Telegraph’s dusty archives. Leafing through cuttings from February 1959 in search of material for an anthology on great rail journeys, I found a report of a Lords debate in which peers complaining about “the rigours of travel on British railways” were dismissed by Viscount Stonehaven as “dismal Willies”.

He demanded of Lord Silkin: “Where else can you get a mattress, two pillows and clean sheets for 25 bob a night except on the railway?”
When several peers questioned the price, Lord Stonehaven explained: “Third class. I never, except when the Government is paying, go first class.”