I have always been a great supporter of MPs and politicians in general and despite falling stock amongst the general public, I am still of the view that actually it takes some gumption to put yourself forward for public office, to put yourself in the public eye in the knowledge that you’ll get blamed when things go wrong and rarely garner the deserved praise when things go right. In my experience most of the people I have met in politics across all parties are primarily motivated by a desire to do good, do the right thing and to serve their communities.
So, whilst not defending those MPs who have clearly strayed, I do think this expenses scandal has had the unfortunate effect of further reducing politicians in the eyes of the public and actually I don’t think that’s a healthy thing in a democracy. This scandal has given people cause to say to us, on the doorsteps, “I’m not voting for any of you – you’re all the same”.
They’re wrong; we’re not all the same.
We are young, we are middle aged, we are old. Retired, self-employed, employed, students, parents, childless, carers. Professionals, academics, skilled, non-skilled. We work in all sorts of different areas: teaching, banking, law, accountancy, electricians, plumbers, social workers, military, trade unions, charity workers, volunteers, construction workers, healthcare, marketing, sales, lobbyists, taxi drivers, writers, business people, entrepreneurs, computer programmers…I could go on and on like this, but you get the picture.
We don’t look alike, sound alike or, most importantly, think alike. Not just this, but there are profound underlying differences between the parties on the way we approach policy. One thing all of us have in common, however, is that we decided to get involved in the process, to give up our spare time to attending meetings, delivering hundreds of leaflets in the rain on Saturday mornings, attending fundraising events, speaking to people on doorsteps.
Now is the time for all of us who care about the democratic process to try to rebuild the connection between politics and ordinary life and to show that actually there shouldn’t be a chasm between the two – politics should be a part of ordinary life.
There is a challenge ahead for parliamentarians to clean up the expenses system and bring integrity back to Westminster. But it is also a challenge to all those people who are dissatisfied with politics – what are they prepared to do about it? Are they prepared to join a political party, help shape its ideas and choose its candidates, even become candidates…or do they prefer to criticise from their sofas and stay away from the polling stations?
Filed under: National Politics
