MPs are again wondering what is the point of the lobbying industry's toothless regulator, the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC). It has just issued a two-page statement condemning the appointment of Lord O'Neill (until recently MP Martin O'Neill, former trade and industry select committee chair) to the advisory board of Media Strategy, the company run by John Major's former press secretary, Charles Lewington.

However, the code is voluntary and companies who do not want to abide by it either don't join the APPC or simply resign from it. That is what Media Strategy did before it was to be sanctioned over O'Neill's appointment.

It claimed that as the peer was on the advisory board, he would not be involved in lobbying so the rules did not apply. The APPC did not agree. Its statement said: "The APPC management committee deeply regret Media Strategy's decision to resign as it is our belief that all companies who provide political consultancy services should promote the principles of transparency and an absolute ban on any financial relationship with politicians and their advisers...The appointment to Media Strategy in any paid capacity compromised the profession's integrity."

But all this is hot air. As Lib Dem Norman Baker observes: "The code is not worth the paper it is written on. If voluntary regulation doesn't work, we have to look at compulsory regulation."

Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan is unrepentant. "As a member of the advisory board, I will not be actively engaged in lobbying and will be doing nothing that conflicts with my role as a peer." In any event, he added, there were other (unnamed) parliamentarians who "were far more intensely involved." So that's all right then.