“The political system itself is under attack…parliament has failed, the government is paralysed…many MPs feel as if the establishment itself is crumbling.”
All this from the Observer’s feature article on the latest scandals and embarrassments that have careened out of Westminster into the public eye. The British press have always loved smearing the reputation of politicians, and with the expenses scandal the mud lies particularly thick.
There is much being said about MPs expenses all over the country at the moment, much of which is groaningly self-evident. Of course many of the claims made have been ridiculous. Of course we need a more transparent system and greater oversight. Maybe most of the offending MPs are working within the letter if not the spirit of the rules, in which case the rules need changing. And naturally as some have pointed out, Stephen Fry included, people in all walks of life sneak away with a larger slice of pie if they’re able, although I happen to think a pricey hotel room on a journalists travel allowance differs somewhat from thousands of pounds for a non-existent mortgage.
Rather than being swept up in righteous fury and doomsday prophecies on the future of British politics, many members of the respectable British press need to step back and cling tightly to just a small thread of perspective. In every newspaper there are new tales of how the public’s trust in politics has been shattered and how the once noble British parliamentary democracy has been reduced to a shambles
I have a simple for message for all those spouting this sensationalist nonsense: shut up. There is some small flicker of truth in all tales I just mentioned, but not nearly enough to merit the number of journalists currently chanting them like mantras. Firstly the issue of trust. Indeed the public trust in politicians has been damaged by the scandals, but even before the revelations was it really so solid? For many years now politicians in Britain have been considered slimy, arrogant and deceitful until proven otherwise. In a few months people will look back on this episode as another proof of that assumption, and it will fit neatly alongside the countless other scandals which have collectively made the rulers of Britain some of its most reviled inhabitants. You can’t shatter trust that did not exist in the first place.
“Where will this revolutionary fervour end?” Asks one broadsheet journalist eager to please his editor, the implication being that it just might end in revolution. Personally I’m all for some kind of British revolution, we’ve never had one to match the French or the Russians and our political history could certainly do with some livening up. However, neither I nor any other sane person in Britain is feeling the pull of “revolutionary fervour” because a few MPs fiddled the system. This is not the end of parliamentary democracy as we know it, so please Mr Editor, tether your crazy journalist to a pole in a field and leave him there until this all blows over.
When the recession hit the doomsday prophets were out in force predicting the end of capitalism. They were wrong then, and they’re wrong now. Our political system is in no danger. This will all finish with Brown announcing some new measures, a few MPs losing their jobs and most of us breathing a sigh of relief that the press can move on to more important things. Until that golden day comes, let’s not wallow in the romance of Armageddon.
