It’s not just the scandals – The new standards commissioner is missing the main point for me when he says, “that a slew of scandals in recent years as well as the turbulence of the past 12 months had tarnished parliament’s reputation”. From the Belgrano slaughter under Thatcher, to expenses, to the miners’ strike, to lobbying, to lying Johnson, to Covid-19, and the never-ending sex and sleaze. Those are bad enough; I would add in the shit poor standard of whom we elect now from what is a bottom of the barrel choice we are given on election day from all of the political parties. He misses out the greed of the politicians themselves in seeing the role as a job and not a vocation.
It is no surprise that the public believe that politicians are in it for themselves, that is because they are in it for themselves in far too many cases. When you look at the pay offs for being a minister for two minutes, the pay rises they get compared to the rest of the public sector, the rewards for failure, the subsidised restaurants and bars that allow them to eat 5-star standard food for 1-star prices while millions go hungry should shame them, it doesn’t. It isn’t even the antics, or the sense of self-importance they have. The bad policy is bad enough, as well as the loss of billions of pounds of our money.
For myself it is the failure of the Prime Minister, any of them, to answer the questions they are asked at PMQs, it is just ludicrous, they rarely answer the question. The Speaker allows them to get away with it every time, it is just a joke in my opinion. It basically allows for lies and zero scrutiny of the Prime Minister and takes us all for mugs. The next thing for me is the total failure to be forced to honour manifesto pledges, they should be forced to by law in my opinion, when they don’t honour them, they have been elected by lies, that is not good enough in any shape or form.
So, while all the corruption is bad enough there is more to the public lack of trust in politicians in the UK, apart from 99% of them being shite, they are liars. They rarely stand by their so-called principles, they put party first most of the time, and they don’t live by the rules they impose on the rest of us. You want to clean up UK politics, take out of the dark ages and protect it with strict enforced laws, anything less is just bullshit.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
You are correct Grumps.
The scary thing for me is that when believe in political leaders breaks down as badly (and justifiably) as it has done in the UK ordinary people can turn very irrational and hostile to the whole system. You know: ‘ah, they’re all as bad as one another’ attitude. When you add that to severe economic hardship – high unemployment, out of control inflation, hunger, cold and fear – they can start looking for simple solutions … and somebody to blame.
In Weimar Germany (1918-33), where all things became prevalent with weak and corrupt government, the people turned to the Nazis and scapegoated Jewish people and left-wingers. We know what happened next.
The UK i.e. England already has exhibited very strongly – and increasingly for the last 50 years at least – an anti-Johnny Foreigner attitude. Whether it has been Windrush folk from the Carribean, EU workers, or North African economic migrants, a suspicious and hostile attitude towards non-Britz has become quite acute.
That’s a warning from history that is definitely being ignored by the political elites of the UK.
Duncanio
Spot on 100%. The politicians themselves are destroying democracy, or what passes for it in the UK, due to their stupidity and their greed. Voters, and party members, are walking into a potential nightmare if they are not careful. I can actually see a far-right party making inroads down south, especially if they can’t stem the flow of plastic boats crossing the channel. We will see a situation where the English will take the law into their own hands, we are seeing a little of it now with the climate protestors, how long until it is the refugees. The corruption, the wasted money, the theft is all bad enough but the lack of honesty, the lack of integrity, decency in our politicians is even more dangerous and the way parliament has been abused and speaker after speaker doing nothing about it is very dangerous in my opinion.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Bruce – where has this guy been in all the years prior to the last 12 months?
“Standards Commissioner”. Another toothless tiger.
Brian
Exactly. They are walking a dangerous path as Duncanio points out in his comment, sleep walking into people looking at far right alternatives or taking the law into their own hands as democracy falls due to the lies and greed of the politicians.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
Pingback: Missing the Point – What the people say | UK