Sometimes I despair of Parliament. Ten days ago, MPs’ annual pay and office costs were published and, predictably enough, there was a lot of public grumbling about how much MPs cost and whether we’re worth all that money.

So you’d have thought that MPs would be sensitive to the nation’s feelings about the cost of their representatives in Parliament. Not a bit of it. Less than a week later, MPs voted to increase their office costs by another £10,000 each year. There are about 650 MPs, so that’s an extra £6,500,000 a year on Britain’s tax bill.

Then, two minutes later, MPs voted to keep Parliament’s 11 week long summer break, from late July through to early October. We could have voted to do a bit of work in September, but we turned it down. Apparently it would disrupt the renovation and redecorating work on Parliament’s buildings. We wouldn’t want democracy to get in the way of the emulsioning, would we?

How can MPs stay in touch with voters, or be respected by them, if our summer break is longer than most people’s entire annual holiday? When Israel invaded Lebanon in August this year, the only place it wasn’t debated was Parliament. How pointless and marginal is that?

As you can probably tell, I voted against the extra money. I voted in favour of Parliament working in September too, as did plenty of other MPs. But not enough. We lost both votes, and the Commons will sail serenely on, blissfully unaware or uncaring of how MPs are seen by the voters who sent them to Westminster in the first place. I suspect that we’re storing up trouble for ourselves in future, and I fear there will be a backlash unless things change.