Political system failing to attract enough talent
As Sherlock Holmes noted: "It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles."
I found myself thinking of that comment when I first read that Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary (and one of the half-dozen most powerful politicians in the country) had signed off an expenses claim for her husband's pornography. Let's face it, when a woman doesn't seem to notice that sort of personal detail, it begs the question of what other detail passes her by. Kerri, my much nicer and far more tolerant better half, misses nothing when it comes to the household bills. Even if I wanted to, I would never be able to smuggle something like "Raw Meat 3" past her.
Mind you, Jacqui Smith also submitted an 89 pence claim for a bath plug for her second house. Another trifle, I admit: but it does tell you something about her. In the midst of a recession, when banks and building societies are collapsing, when pension funds are decimated, when businesses are going to the wall and when many of her own constituents are tightening their belts – she still finds the time to claim 89 pence for a plug and a few quid more for dirty films.
And it's that sort of petty, mean-spirited, tightfistedness which most annoys the public on matters like this. By no interpretation of the rules could a bath plug be defined as an essential requirement for an MP to do their job. Now, although I take Macaulay's view that there is "no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality", I also take the view that most politicians lay themselves open to be ridiculed.
Maybe it's something to do with the fact that almost every set of expenses claims, when totted up, more or less equals the total amount you are allowed to claim. Or maybe it's something to do with the fact that politicians seem to need a second-home lifestyle that the rest of us don't enjoy in our only homes. Closer to home, quite literally, it may be something to do with the fact that the only experienced staff that politicians seem able to find are members of their own families and political parties.
The mantra of the past week, from politicians in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is the collective bleat of "we've done nothing wrong; it's all within the rules": the rules that they themselves have set, of course. Again, let me offer you another comment from Holmes: "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different." Perhaps if our politicians shifted their point of view a little they would realise that the circumstantial evidence concerning expenses shows them all in a very poor light.
Of course, most of the rest of us aren't exactly angels, either, when it comes to creative expense claims. I doubt if there are all that many people whose returns would withstand a spotlight scrutiny from a newspaper, let alone the Inland Revenue. A recent poll indicated that almost 90 per cent of us wouldn't tell a restaurant or hotel that we had been undercharged for food or services. And that same poll indicated that almost 30 per cent of those who could, legitimately, claim an expense for entertaining a client to lunch or dinner, actually took a partner or friend on a regular basis. Similarly, millions of pounds worth of material is removed from offices, schools and factories by staff – few of whom would regard what they were doing as theft. And how many of us use work phones and computers for personal use during office hours?
None of this excuses or justifies the expenses gravy train enjoyed by so many politicians, but it does, perhaps, explain, why the media and the general public enjoy their "periodical fits of morality." MPs are a very easy target. As a breed we tend to regard them as overpaid and under-worked. The vast majority cannot name their MP – and even when we can name them, most of us don't have a particularly positive opinion of them.
It seems to me that there are two realities. The first is that the MPs we have (along with the representatives in the devolved institutions) actually do a fairly good job in terms of what is demanded of them. And while it may be true that the expenses are too generous, that is an issue which can be addressed and resolved through reform.
But the other reality is a more difficult one to deal with. The nature of our party whipping system makes politics a very uninviting and unexciting place for too many talented people. It forces free thinking and individualism out of politics and out of our national and devolved chambers. It boxes and confines both representatives and the wider electorate and makes it almost impossible to do anything radical or revolutionary. Put bluntly, politics suits people who are prepared to settle for the same-old, same-old. All of which may explain why we have so very few genuinely interesting politicians and why ever increasing numbers of people are refusing to vote for any of them – irrespective of party label.
So when some commentators say that the expenses and assorted perks have to be high to attract people into professional politics, they are utterly wrong. The very brightest and best are already earning vastly more outside than inside politics; and no amount of money would compensate them for the fact that as elected representatives they would be whipped, boxed, confined and restrained.
Politics is about something more than keeping the system ticking over. It's about something more than tinkering at the edges and finding excuses for not doing, rather than doing something. It's about something more than diluting your instincts and conscience and trooping into the voting lobby on nothing more substantial than "your party's call". We don't just need higher salaries and expenses: we need a system which allows our elected representatives to be something more than lobby fodder and foot-draggers. Put bluntly, we need to make politics exciting and properly combative again.
Alex Kane is director of communications for the UUP.
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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