Now you know what it’s like. So a politician friend chuckled the other day after police roused several journalists from their beds for questioning about the alleged bribery of public officials. Not so long ago Britain’s parliamentarians were excoriated for fiddling their expenses. Now the nation’s press is in the dock. At Westminster you can cut the schadenfreude with a knife.

The expenses scandal shredded the reputation of Britain’s political class. Some went to jail and others were shamed into retirement. Politicians had never been held high in public esteem but billing taxpayers for the cost of cleaning out the moat at the family estate was a claim too far.

News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, is at the centre of the bribery scandal. A furore about voicemail interceptions has already forced the closure of the best-selling News of the World. This has merged into an even more damaging investigation into illegal payments to police officers and civil servants.