SO THAT’S how a political scandal unfolds in this coalition. Someone you have never heard of resigns after five minutes or something, and everyone rushes round to say what a wonderful job he had been doing.

There are a number of telling aspects to the abrupt departure of Treasury Chief Secretary David Laws after two weeks, not least the arrival of one of those “who’s-he?” moments.

Every time I turned on the radio last week, a politician or City-type popped up to proclaim the greatness of Mr Laws, the Lib Dem MP and millionaire former banker. How wonderful to be thought a genius when your feet were still finding their way under the desk.

Mr Laws was tasked with cutting the deficit, which is to say in some measure slashing funds to the disadvantaged. Among whom he did not apparently include himself, having adroitly claimed more than £40,000 in expenses to live in his partner’s house, something which has been banned under Commons rules since 2006.

One given reason for making this claim was that Mr Laws did not wish people to know about his living arrangements and therefore his sexuality. Fair enough on that one. I’ve never really seen why other people’s sexuality is all that interesting anyway – especially when you don’t know them in the first place.

Of course, what Mr Laws appears to have meant was that he didn’t wish those close to him to be in on the secret, which shows unusual discretion in this flaunt-it-all age of ours.

However, our sympathy should only stretch so far. For this particular scandal was about money, not sex; and it concerned a man charged with dispensing harsh austerity measures for the rest of us. So feel free to put on your “what was he thinking T-shirt” at this point.

But there is another troubling aspect to this, and one which may wipe the smirks off David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s faces (well, it’s about time something did).

And here it is. This scandal was choreographed by the Daily Telegraph, which appears to have little love for the coalition.

But is it right that a newspaper should release certain stories – no doubt dragged from its rainy-day vaults – to inflict maximum political damage on a government (even this one)?

I like a good newspaper scandal as much as the next nosy nerd, but there is something problematic when the big moral decisions about who stays and goes are in essence made by a newspaper group with an axe to grind. Especially one with absentee proprietors who live at a tax-free remove from their readers.

Incidentally, everyone in this happy political union goes around saying that making cuts will turn the economy round. But is that true?

It could just as easily be said that the deficit will be reduced when the economy grows – something which could be prevented by the very cuts that are now being touted as the only way out.

It’s enough to give a person a headache.

FUNNY how the unlikeliest connections can be made. What, do you think, might link my favourite TV cop drama of the moment with Israel’s latest atrocity – the attack on the flotilla taking aid to Gaza?

The answer lies in the presence on board one of the ships of the Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, creator of the great Wallander.

Mankell’s novels have been turned into competing TV dramas: the perfectly serviceable Kenneth Branagh version for our own BBC, and the far superior Swedish version that goes out on BBC4 on Saturday nights, offering a gloom-fest of magnificent proportions.

Incidentally, it would take a greater investigator even than Wallander to work out exactly what the Israelis thought they were up to. It appears to be a matter of sorrow and mystery to the rest of the world.

As for the glum ginger-tinged Swede, do give him a try. Never mind the subtitles – yes, it does have those – Wallander is easily the best thing on right now.