BACL Blog

Politics is a profession wherein the protagonists must become accustomed to dark hours; but no political apprenticeship could have prepared MPs for the ruthless mauling they received this week.

Whilst President Obama was formulating a radical multi-state solution to the seemingly permanent crisis in the Middle East and tensions in Sri Lanka went beyond a state of emergency, the national headlines have been dominated by the intricacies of a set of risible shopping lists.  Notwithstanding the fact that the voices of a million anti-Iraq war protestors fell on deaf ears in 2003, revelations of MPs taking advantage of some conveniently-grey areas was reported to be democracy’s Armageddon. 

 Yet despite what the national media will have you believe, the events of last week were a victory for the ideal which the post-war Western world purports to be founded upon – transparent democracy. Unfortunately, of course, such rhetoric will not sell newspapers, or indeed satellite subscriptions. Our perverse obsession with scandal appeals to the falsity that headline news must signal some cataclysmic occurrence.

I accept that the revelations have been shambolic in some cases, and even perhaps fraudulent in others. In a nation of shopkeepers, some will always have their hands in the tills; and it is thoroughly disappointing when we discover that some of those are elected lawmakers. Radical change is urgently required, and will be actioned. What has really infuriated people, however, is the laying bare of MPs’ lifestyles. Moats, chandeliers and cleaners are surreal reminders that MPs are so far removed from the harsh realities of the lives of the majority, that the men of the people, are by and large not of the people at all.

In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith revealed that she was scared to walk the streets of London at night, and indeed has never done so. This statement was far more a reflection on the relationship between MPs and the public, than on the streets of London. The Home Secretary should be apprehensive about walking any street in England at any time of the day, not because of the propensity to be a victim of crime, but because she would feel utterly alienated from the people she would see.  When asked to justify why she had never done this, she pathetically retorted that “I just don’t think that’s a thing that people do, is it, really?” Actually, Jacqui – it is, but employing your husband and claiming taxpayers’ money for his pornography fetish certainly isn’t. After the dust settles on this political sandstorm, the bigger issue to reflect on is not how MPs are remunerated, but who they actually are.

But let us not confuse the exposure of undemocratic practices with the end of democracy itself. In truth, each time political malpractice rears its ugly head through damning tabloid disclosure, it acts as a catalyst to cleanse the system, rather than pollute it further. Public surprise comes from the deluded notion that we live in a perfect society  - we do not, and I’ll save you the suspense – we never will. Just as Gordon Brown has painfully discovered in the last 12 months that you can never put an end to economic boom and bust, so too will there always be corruption, to varying degrees, amongst government and the governed alike. These, like death and taxes, are certainties of nature.

However, that is not to say that we have not and will not evolve as a society to counteract such evils, and move forward. Two concepts which have had their death-knoll sounded vigorously in recent literature have combined to deliver justice and reform – the ideals of capitalism and elected political representation. The Daily Telegraph, motivated purely by a capitalist self-interest has served a public purpose through its entitlement of freedom of the press. This in turn has brought about public outrage, which will now certainly cause change to the political system. All three leaders of the main parties hastened to chastise morally bankrupt members of their parties and call for systemic revolution. Such a change is fuelled by MPs’ positions being at the behest of public opinion and, in reality, public votes.

This chain reaction is by no means a perfect blueprint for an equitable society, but there can be no doubt that it has worked in this instance. Further proof of its efficacy was the suspension of two Labour peers in the “cash for amendments” scandal last Friday, which was a far more ominous revelation than any MP’s expense claims, and again, pioneered by a national newspaper. The real story of these events was a positive one - one of the press, the Houses of Parliament and the people interacting to fortify the values which we preach so vehemently and often hypocritically. As people, we can only strengthen this structure by analysing, discussing and voting with reflection on major issues. The real shame is that this hasn’t happened often enough in the past; perhaps if it does then no politician would dare to disregard the voices of a million protestors again. Perhaps even a Home Secretary would be able to walk the streets at night…

Written by Heteash Singh Chowdhry , Vice Chairman of Public Affairs of the BACL