baldysblog.co.uk

There was a very good editorial in Friday’s Independent that set out to call for some balance and fairness in how individual MPs are dealt with and a good quote from that: “Yet there is a broader context to this scandal that ought to be recognised. Although Ms Moran and Ms Kirkbride – and many other MPs – have acted foolishly the hysterical tone in which this debate is being conducted has become unhealthy for our democracy.”

Worth a read, URL as follows:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-crimes-punishment-and-responding-to-public-anger-1692508.html

My Initial Response

Whilst the whole thing is less about expenses than a whole range of other issues about a Parliament long disconnected from the electorate plus the public’s fear for their immediate economic future.

The Telegraph keeps pumping up the volume, the rest of the media follow and all common sense has gone out of the window as people run round in ever decreasing circles like headless chickens. The last time the British public acted as irrationally as this was the death of Princess Diana but in that case and the time of the year, one vaguely hoped that a lot of the baying mob were tourists and at least there was closure in burying the woman.

What closure can there be on this ?

I doubt that the elections next week will do the job because this is rather like an out of control bush fire and will need to burn itself out first and then there needs to be an Autumn election and Brown and the Labour Party need to take note of that because the economy can no longer wait on the will of the idiot at No.10.

I felt so proud to be British over the Gurkhas but this Witch Hunt is a disgrace at so many levels and as you say, unjust which is always the way when due process is usurped by the lynch mob mentality. It is also pathetic because apart from mortgage relief and dubious items such as moat cleaning and tree surgeons bills, where are the really big frauds ? Where are the T Dan Smith style dodgy deals ? None we are down to tampons and dog food, we can’t even do fraud properly. It is likely that a certain Mr T Blair if properly assessed for benefits in kind, walked away with more than anybody else truth to tell.

But the real cherry on the cake for me is the appalling thought that Ester Rantzen, Terry Waite, that idiot Bell and even that ginger haired lunatic Simon Heffer may stand for Parliament – Lord help us ! We will go from people who have been pilfering paper clips and pens to MPs who can barely walk upright and prevent their knuckles scrapping the ground, a sort of reverse Darwinian process.

We will all look back on this with acute embarrassment, the honest among us with some shame, this is no way for a supposedly mature democracy to behave, it is a total disgrace.

Another political apologist

As if to illustrate the point rather well, some incoherent fool posted the following with regard to the Editorial and it indicates the mindset. For fun I will post my replies and a further one from them:

Mr Angry:

“Another unsigned article asking us to lay off MPs over their expenses. I have said before that this article has been written either by a politician, a lobbyist, or a friend of either. It is becoming sickening to watch the once independent Independent grovel at the feet of these corrupt parliamentarians.”

My First Reply to Mr Angry:

I suppose you only like to read what you like to say ? In which case why not run back to your place beside the Guillotine, pick up your knitting and await the latest batch to arrive in the tumbrils ?

I imagine that it is called the “Independent” because it is aimed at independently minded people who can work things out for themselves rather than those who always follow the crowd. If meant for people who like to follow along I’m sure it would be called “The Daily Herding”, if meant for a lynch mob, “The Hanging Times”.

The expenses thing is really rather done and over I suspect. Can you ever imagine another expense claim as those made in the past ever being made again ? The point is not about letting politicians off the hook, it is about switching to a “due process” that is both public and fair, the variable treatment which is what this Leader points to helps no one. In the end many will be deselected, stand down at the next election, be voted out by their constituents, a few may well face criminal charges.

But the big problem with what is going on is that all MPs and therefore our whole system is being eroded. Correct it, reform it, punish the guilty but also, exonerate the innocent and it is this latter that is not happening. No one is being an apologist, it is simply time tempers cooled, common sense and a sense of proportion returned, we need to move forward and deal with the economy, this side show is a distraction to what we should be concerned about.

Mr Angry Replies to That

“Distraction , time to move on, more important issues, the national economy, common sense, sense of proportion, etc,etc” A woman is currently being prosecuted for giving a false address in relation to an application for a school for her child. Does the law only apply to the ‘little people’.

My Second Reply to Mr Angry

And your point is what precisely ?

This “story” is about MPs abusing their expenses system. That “story” is about a woman who deliberately gave a false address so that she could get her child into a particular school. What seems to unite them is cheating for personal advantage.

One might say that it is natural for a parent to wish to benefit their child by bending the rules but if so, is Bill Cash renting a flat from his daughter because she had moved in with her boyfriend also acceptable ?

You may say that Bill Cash was claiming the rent from the taxpayer for the couple of years he stayed there. But is that worse than a child who got “bumped out” of having a place at a good State School because another child’s parent lied ?

To be honest most things in life are not black and white and in the normal run of things all that would have happened to this mother is that the place would have been withdrawn, why prosecute her as a test case ? – likely to encourage the others and dissuade them from doing the same.