"O what a tangled web we weave,

When we first practise to deceive!"

YESTERDAY, Jeffrey Archer's web unravelled, his cunningly-spun tangle of false alibis and faked diaries came undone, and he came crashing down.

Make no mistake, this was not a spur of the moment lie, a casual half-truth. It was a deliberate, elaborate deception that he spun simply to save, at all costs, his own skin when he was faced with a sordid, disreputable allegation.

It is fitting, therefore, that his downfall comes in seedy circumstances. The witnesses who have eventually turned against him seem not to be motivated by the noble cause of truth but by resentment about an unpaid bonus and a desire to make a quick buck by selling a story.

These are selfish motives, and so fitting for associates of Archer. After all, he cared not for those who became trapped in his web - his secretary, his best friend, his agent, his colleagues, his party and his wife. As he spun, all he cared about was himself.

Now, trapped in his web is his wife, the fragrant Mary, who is no longer so sweet-smelling. The jury rejected her claim about the existence of the diary and she may face a perjury investigation.

His colleagues are more of his victims. Successive Conservative Party chairmen Cecil Parkinson and Michael Ancram waved away the warnings of former Richmond MP Sir Timothy Kitson and allowed Archer to become the London mayoral candidate where the current Richmond MP William Hague enthusiastically endorsed him. As the Hinduja affair showed, our leading politicians are too easily seduced by people that their instincts must tell them to avoid.

His party is another victim. To have one perjuror in its midst in the shape of Jonathan Aitken, may be unfortunate. To have two is an indication of the contempt that the electorate saw in 1997 when inflicting the catastrophic defeat - a defeat that Archer's party may never recover from.

And finally, having done his best to undermine the British judicial system, he now makes a mockery of the British constitution. It is outrageous that a life peer cannot be stripped of his right to sit in the House of Lords. A common MP would be excluded from the Commons if imprisoned for criminal offences, but on his release the liar Archer could lawfully retake his seat and play a part in the government of Great Britain. This highlights the rottenness of the unelected Lords, with one rule for commoners and another for men like Archer who have friends in high places. It must be changed because our constitution is far too precious to find itself trapped in the web of a great deceiver like Archer