First Bill English, then Chris Carter and now Rodney Hide. Parliament's unique strain of swine flu has claimed another victim.

Another senior politician has been caught with his trotters planted firmly in the trough - the difference being that Hide's affliction has been severely compounded by a simultaneous outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease.

Whether or not the remark was meant for public consumption, Hide's labelling of John Key as a "do-nothing" prime minister was a big mistake.

The description - patently absurd - was always going to rebound on Hide given that Key's soaring popularity has made him virtually untouchable.

Hide exhibited Act's worst mannerism - its superiority complex which, in fact, masks a deeper insecurity surrounding its failure to get the kind of vote at elections that other niche parties like the Greens have.

Hide's belittling of Key was in stark contrast to Key's defence of Hide only days earlier - a defence made despite Hide circumventing the Prime Minister's edict that ministers wanting their partners to accompany them when they go globe-trotting pay their own way.

While playing down Hide's jibe, Key, no doubt, will have found Hide's real opinion of him instructive in their future dealings.

For his part, Hide succeeded in only drawing more unwanted attention to the charges of hypocrisy that he, like English, has had to answer.

In English's case, the inconsistency was his dubious claim of entitlement to a living-outside-his-electorate allowance while delivering sermons on frugality as Minister of Finance.

Hide was sprung taking his girlfriend on a global jaunt on the taxpayer, a revelation doubly damaging on subsequent discovery that the trip just happened to coincide with her brother's wedding in Britain.

It would have been difficult for Hide to come up with a more flagrant violation of his self-ascribed image as Parliament's resident perkbuster and his party's associated promises about using public money sparingly and wisely.

It is difficult to explain why both English and Hide could not see the contradictions, given the pair are not only two of Parliament's brightest, they have been around long enough to know what is sustainable politically and what isn't.

English's behaviour is easier to explain. The boarding school atmosphere of Parliament rewards MPs with more perks the higher they get up the pecking order. A mindset develops which sees the perks as entitlements to be claimed as of right - a mindset reinforced by a reluctance on the part of compliant officials to say "no" to their masters.