The Deputy Prime Minister or Johnny Two Jags to you and I was in the news again last week - for all the wrong reasons. Seems he forgot to pay his council tax... A heinous crime for which others have been jailed.
The leader of the Is It Fair? campaign, which wants the tax abolished, suggested that the Deputy Prime Minister, whose department oversees local government, should either go to jail - as pensioners have done for failing to pay - or lose his job.
Sorry, but I can't agree. Just what would we do without him? We wouldn't have the chance to publish pictures like this:
According to his office, Mr Prescott owed Westminster City Council £3,830.52.
Is It Fair? supported Alfred Ridley, a retired vicar who spent 28 days in jail for refusing to pay above-inflation rises on his council tax, and Sylvia Hardy, who served less than 48 hours of a seven-day sentence, also for refusing to pay in full.
Mrs Hardy said: "I can't understand how it was allowed to have got to such a high amount when I got my first demand letter after I owed the council here £14."
Mr Prescott's aides yesterday admitted that he was not amused to issue an apology for what was described as a "classic case of left-hand, right-hand" on the part of what must now be some very chastened civil servants.
Hmmm. Ignorance is not usually a defence accepted in a court. Oh, but of course, it never got that far...because in the case of Johnny Two Rules, it's one for him. And one for us.