Rover owners: MAF unplugged/diode fitted or replaced

Hello Peeps,
Hope you all had a good crimbo.

Been doing a bit of reading but not found a difinitive answer yet.
Could someone tell me he following with any degree of certainty?

If i bridge the pins on the MA with a paperclip or a diode(IN1448) allegedly across pins 4+5 is this with the maf plugged in?
Or you leave Maf plug off but with this diode in place across the plug?

Read another thread, where some nice chap shared his diagram for a Mafam, but he said that the diode across pins 4+5 worked better than the Mafam.

Going to try unplugging the MAF 1st, followed by cleaning it, then going to try the diode Bodge and finally will try buying one of these.
FOR ROVER MGZT 2.0 CDTI 135 DIESEL (2002-05) MAF MASS AIR FLOW SENSOR METER AFM

At this sort of price you could include it in a yearly service if your lavish