Greed is Their Game

These should be dark days for David Cameron, Britain's Conservative Party leader. A spending scandal has revealed some spectacularly shameful details about expenses claimed by his legislators. Among the rule-bending bills submitted to taxpayers: spending for a helipad, swimming-pool repairs and moat-dredging. Though the revelations have hit the Labour Party as well, you'd think they'd have hurt the Tories more by reviving the upper-class, out-of-touch image Cameron has tried to dispel.

So why is Cameron still so far ahead in the polls? Support for Conservatives has barely slipped, standing strong at about 40 percent, while Labour's plunge has dipped into the 20s. And twice as many voters say the expenses scandal mars Labour more than the Tories. The reason? Conservatives seem to have discovered the upside of low expectations. In the words of former Labour leader Harold Wilson: "The Labour Party is a moral crusade—or it is nothing." Such lofty standards only set up the party for a fall. By contrast, "sleaze is what the Conservatives do," says political analyst Mike Smithson. This low bar may soon lead the Tories to victory—but won't get anyone a new swimming pool.