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Expenses scandal shouldn’t cost us our democracy
NEWSPAPERS and TV are overflowing with stories about corruption in the Commons as if something extraordinary has occurred.
In fact, the Commons has been a bed of various vices since, at least, the era of Rotten Boroughs in the 19th century to the various scandals in the 1960s and 1970s engulfing Cabinet ministers from Marples and Maudling to Callaghan. In those two decades publications were more coy, except for the irreverent Private Eye.
Today, MPs are more fair game – and so it should be.
But half a loaf – as George Orwell used to emphasise – is better than none.
And the Commons remains more than a symbolic representative of what is best in a democracy, however far it falls from grace.
It has, admittedly, fallen into a deep hole this week. And the spectacle on Tuesday and yesterday (Wednesday) of MPs paying back the money they have, in effect, swindled out of taxpayers, can be seen as pretty nauseating.
But such has been the despair with politicians, certainly since the 1980s, that many people must think they are bound to behave like that.
Some of our legislators – perhaps only a minority – have proved to be on the make. Their moral compass is askew. They are part of a sea of corruption that is beginning to drown much of public life, from corporate tax dodgers to high-living celebrities and some members of the Royal family.
But there are exceptions, mainly among Lib Dem and Labour MPs, usually of the Old Labour kind.
It would be disastrous for democracy if the exposure in the Daily Telegraph opened the door for such extremist parties as the BNP who, if in power, would uproot constitutional rule.
Whatever the antics in the Commons, we hope people won’t turn their back on the political process. If they want to kick the main parties in the Euro elections on June 4, there are several minority parties, excluding the BNP, whose manifestoes appear attractive.
She’s the Dame with a seat aim
OUR Dame Joan Bakewell – the Older People’s Champion – is taking up a good cause. She wants children and young people to offer oldies their seats on buses and Tube trains. This basic mark of respect is still alive in other European countries.
Here, young immigrants from Europe, Africa and Asia, often show the way. But what has begun to die out can be brought back to life – with the help of Dame Joan.
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