Maybe, like David Cameron, it all happened in previous lives. At the end of 2005, when he was looking for the job of British Conservative Party leader, Cameron admitted he had had a "typical student experience". There was no straight answer in that formulation of words. But the drugs issue didn't go away. Last week, Cameron was confronted with a new biography which claims that, as a 15-yearold at Eton, he smoked cannabis. Cameron refused to deal with the claims. "Like many people, I did things when I was young that I should not have done, and that I regret, " he said.

Then came an opinion poll in the London Times newspaper showing that there was strong public support for his stance. More than four-fifths of the British public (81%) said that it does not matter if Cameron smoked cannabis at school or university.

Eighty-five per cent believed that he should not have to face detailed questions about whether he tried illegal drugs in his younger days. It would, however, be a different matter if the drugs in question were "more serious" than cannabis, while 71% said it would matter if he had done so as an adult, after he began his working life. No smoking hash in the House of Commons, then.

In a previous generation, any form of illegal drug taking would have forced a British - and an Irish - politician from public office. Now the small list of what can be considered a "resignation issue" is ever decreasing.

Incompetence in office has never been high on that particular list. If it was, the current coalition would have a collection of former ministers sitting high on the backbenches in DA il A ireann. Think Noel Dempsey and e-voting or Mary Harney and PPARS.

Today, a politician can blunder spectacularly with public money and simply get away with it.

A politician can also take somebody else's money, shed a tear on nation television and smile. If you have difficulties in your personal life, you can go to Manchester and take cash from strangers or just stay at home and get a dig-out from your friends. Ray Burke took corrupt payments, but even the exit of the foreign affairs minister in 1997 came with his colleagues in Fianna FA il rallying to his cause.

Michael Lowry has had his tribunal troubles, but his strong support in Tipperary North has seen him returned successfully to the DA il. The Supreme Court agreed that Beverley Flynn promoted tax evasion in a previous job and - while her Fianna FA il career suffered - she's still a public representative.

So drug use in a previous life is allowed, dodgy money dealing skates a thin line, but incompetence is perfectly acceptable. So what about sex? We've never had a major political sex scandal - notwithstanding Emmet Stagg's unusual after-dark rendezvous in the Phoenix Park. French president Jacques Chirac last week admitted that it was "possible" he had an affair, and that he loved some women "as discreetly as possible".

Once, we would have said such behaviour was what was expected from the French, but now it's likely that it would also be perfectly acceptable from an Irish politician. Such a revelation might actually increase their popularity.