There is an interesting double standard when it comes to Hungary and the other former Eastern bloc countries. Gyurcsány was supported by Tony Blair in his campaign for re-election. Having to shake hands with unsavoury dignitaries is one of the occupational hazards of being a leader. Realpolitik stinks. But imagine the outcry if, say, a Conservative politician had gone to Europe to support a former Nazi or even someone suspected of Nazi sympathies. Yet Blair had no problem endorsing Gyurcsány, who had been a zealous member of the MSZMP, a party which after 1956 had methodically executed hundreds of Hungarians who expressed an interest in democracy and free speech. This is one of the many problems dogging Hungary - the insolubility of the past. The normal Western terms don't mean the same in Hungary. They use Right and Left, but the "Left", that is the former communists, are the most abject before Mammon. The "Right", those who opposed the communists, have an outlook more akin to that of the Labour Party.

Hungary has many political parties, but a bipartisan system has edged out on the one side the Socialist Party and on the other Fidesz. The enmity between the two sides is of such ferocity that in order to find a parallel in Britain, you'd have to go back to the Civil War. And this divide splits society. If you are "right-wing", you don't just vote for Fidesz, you eat in a "right-wing" restaurant and you buy flowers from a "right-wing" florist.

Fidesz was founded in 1988 as an independent youth movement by its current leader Viktor Orbán and other students. It was an initiative that risked their necks. You can understand why Orbán objects to being lectured on the niceties of democracy and political etiquette by someone like Gyurscány. However, Fidesz has evolved into a modern political party and, as such, has its own quota of deadbeats, opportunists and perverts.

Widespread disenchantment with politicians is one of Hungary's greatest banes. Corruption is the main cause. It is endemic. Even Goebbels complained about it: "Their most influential men are all corrupt as Turks." Gordon Brown may have screwed your wallet, but whatever his shortcomings, we all know that his priority in power hasn't been stuffing his. Unfortunately, most Hungarians expect their politicians to be on the take and that's because many of them are. I'd love to name names, but I'm not in the mood for litigation.