Anyone else tired of reading the depressing details of MPs expense claims?
For the last word on this subject, read Philip Stephens.
The scores of MPs who abused the House of Commons’ allowances system cannot expect sympathy. The refrain of ministers that claims were “within the rules” only stokes popular disdain. The gaming of the system was at best morally reprehensible and at worst downright sleazy.
But enough is enough. It is time to call a halt to the media show trials. These are misdemeanours rather than high crimes. The fulminating humbug of their well-heeled media tormenters – not least at the publicly-funded BBC – has become as distasteful as the chicanery on the part of MPs.”
As someone raised on the belief that democracy was the last great hope of civilization, the petty corruption of our elected officials is pretty dispiriting. Obviously, the sooner the system is cleaned up, the better. But what is more worrying to me is the ever-widening “disconnect between politicians and citizens” that, as Stephens points out, only gets worse when a sensation-loving media “ignores serious political argument and amplifies personal frailties”.
We are less than a month away from one of the biggest trans-national elections in history. In June, 763 officials will be elected to represent 27 member states of the European Union. But how many of us will vote? As Peter Hain warns, the cost of not voting is serious: the British National Party, and other far-right groups across Europe, will gleefully win ground where others lose. I’m pretty disillusioned with all the main parties at the moment, but I’m certainly voting, if only to make my voice heard against the extreme right. If you haven’t yet registered to vote, find out how here.
