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“A CONSTITUTIONAL crisis” shouts the Spectator. “The end of the Gentleman’s Club” proclaims the Guardian. “A defining moment, like 1832, when Parliament decides what it is for” says a senior backbencher.

You don’t have to cast much of a net to catch some juicy hyperbole in these political seas – even this site forecasts the dawn of a New Politics for Wales as a result of the MPs’ expenses scandal and subsequent defenestration of the Speaker.

Well yes, perhaps. Or perhaps it will all just blow itself out once the parties conclude they have done enough to buy off public fury. The inter-party arms race to promise the most root-and-branch review (what is deeper than root and branch? A subsoil study?) is matched by the studied grimness of our leaders’ faces. The message is clear: no more business as usual. Yet dig a little – what is actually being promised?

We know that the regime of allowances will be reformed so that it more closely resembles expenses that people in the real world receive. No doubt a couple of expendable backbenchers will be tossed overboard. Margaret Moran looks like the most likely such candidate while Hazel Blears will be reshuffled out of government, something that would have happened anyway. A few more may join them in either exile from politics or from the front bench.

But will this cleansing of Parliament’s Aegean stables bring forth a new generation of politician? Not likely. We will not see a wave of deselections. In the first instance, local parties will stick by their MP. In the second, not even a currently unassailable leader like David Cameron can afford to take on too sizeable a section of his shadow cabinet or parliamentary party. The Conservative leader is demanding an early General Election, knowing that any such contest would merely mean the same slate of candidates he currently has in place. So much for investigating the claims of each MP thoroughly. So much for a new Parliament with a fresh mandate. Gordon Brown, meanwhile, cannot even enjoy the comfort of unquestioned leadership.

What then of the other reforms? We have heard all the usual radical suggestions, including moving Westminster to the provinces to proportional representation. None of it will happen for the reason it has not happened already; as soon as the current urgency to be seen to placate the punters ebbs, all the usual vested interests will kick in. Michael Martin had not even issued his 33-second resignation speech before the co-sponsors of his downfall were arguing about the next steps.

In the heat of the moment it seems as if this is all different. Confidence in politics is at an all-time low, anger at an historic high. Yet the angry mob that brought Parliament Square to a halt on Monday consisted of Tamils, not taxpayers. The average voter will do no more than huff, puff and abstain. And if you think an even lower turnout at the next General Election – or even a few more minority party MPs – will focus the minds of the political elite, you are deluding yourself.