LONDON — The Queen, as they say, was not pleased.

A raft of legislators from the House of Commons had embarrassed themselves big time by scamming generous living expense allowances designed to take away some of the financial pain of living far away from their home districts.

The papers were in full frenzy as they described parliamentarians double-dipping on mortgage expenses, running up huge furnishing tabs for stuff that went not to their "second home" but rather to the homestead in the district.

The upshot of all this, aside from giving the papers a field-day opportunity to have fun at the Parliament's expense, was to stir a vicious call for the resignation of Speaker Michael Martin.

On Tuesday, Martin resigned, effective June 21.

The relevance of this excitement to Hawai'i is to reinforce, once again, the perilous role of anyone in legislative leadership. Yes, the House speaker and the Senate president get more than their share of the glory when things go right. But they are the natural scapegoats when things go wrong.

Right now, House Speaker Calvin Say is running a constant rear-guard battle against dissidents who feel it is time for him to step down and allow new leadership to take over. Their complaints are not scandal-based, as in London, but rather on procedural grounds. The normal complaint of dissidents in a legislative body is that they want more "openness," which generally translates as more access for them to the levers of power.

But you can bet that if one or more members of the House get caught with their hand in the cookie jar, the dissidents will use that as count No. 1 against Speaker Say in their efforts to dislodge him.

In the Senate, President Colleen Hanabusa appears secure for now, but things could change on a dime. The Senate has seen more than its share of spectacular battles over the presidency, with faction battling faction while the regular business of the Senate languished.

Hawai'i has never seen a legislative scandal as juicy as the one under way in Britain. Oh, there are the famous stories of legislative carpets and other furniture showing up at the homes of lawmakers once session has ended. And in days past, it was common for lawmakers to accept generous goodies from lobbyists and others (golf-course access, trips, food and drink, etc).

Today, our lawmakers are a relatively straight-laced bunch. But you never know when an opportunity to generate a little legislative vigorish might emerge. And if the perps get caught, expect leadership, whether speaker or president, to take the fall.

Jerry Burris' blog is at www.honoluluadvertiser.com/section/featuredblogs. Reach him at jrryburris@yahoo.com.