Careerist are Killing the Commons – Nick Wood
15 September 2011 12:31 PM
Career politicians will be the death of the Commons
I have a confession to make. I actually like MPs - in contrast to the great British public, who roughly put them on a par with child molesters and estate agents, according to a weighty new survey.
According to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, only 26 per cent of people think MPs are working well for the public - down from 46 per cent before the expenses scandal.
Only 26 per cent believe MPs are competent, 22 per cent that they set a good example in their private lives, and 20 per cent that they tell the truth.
Clearly I am out of step with public opinion. But frankly, I am not surprised at these numbers.
The expenses scandal shook public confidence in MPs in an unprecedented way. All those stories about duck houses, moats, the endless flipping of houses to maximise allowances and porn on the taxpayer were both depressing and laughable in equal measure.
And, of course, deeper factors were at work. The last Labour government left the country in an appalling mess with a debt burden that will take a generation to clear.
Billions of pounds were squandered on public services for little observable improvement, pointless and wasteful quangos proliferated, immigration spun out of control, the Iraq war was fought on a false premise, energy costs soared because of insane climate change targets, and a deep cynicism if not sense of despair came to pervade much of the country.
As for the social fabric of the nation, the summer riots were a grim vindication of the warnings of a broken society.
In fact, you could turn these numbers on their heads and marvel that roughly one person in four still believes that MPs work well, live lives of moral rectitude and tell the truth.
I have spent the last 25 years rubbing shoulders with MPs and ministers. Do I believe that they are bad people?
Not at all. Rather like journalists, MPs are an acquired taste. But many of them are great company - quick, funny, intelligent, hard-working, egotistical and - in their youth at least - people with a mission to leave the world a better place.
Of course, some are pompous, self important, dull and downright boring. But that goes for almost any group of people.
Do they tell the truth? That's a tough one. Truth in politics is relative, so my truth is your lie, all depending on which facts are assembled and in which order. Better to say that politicians spend every day wrestling with differences of opinion.
Then there is collective responsibility. Say you are appointed to the Cabinet even though you are a fervent believer in grammar schools. The Cabinet decides that it is opposed to grammar schools. How do you answer when you are asked if you support Government policy? Hard to tell the truth then if you want to keep your job.
And the same will go for every other member of the Cabinet because there are bound to be aspects of Government policy they disagree with. But if everyone starts saying what they think, the Government will fall apart in 10 minutes. A degree of organised lying (or evasion) is inevitable for a Cabinet to survive. Just look at the tensions arising in the Coalition now as more and more ministers, especially Lib Dems, feel free publicly to challenge the Cabinet's agreed policies.
The expenses scandal was a disgrace, but one in which the political hierarchy were as much to blame as individual MPs. The whips quietly encouraged MPs to top up their salaries by exploiting their expenses. The public were rightly outraged when this typical political fix was exposed. The honest approach would have been for MPs to risk the ire of the public by voting to increase their salaries - and squeeze their expenses. But they and their party leaders ducked that bullet, rightfully earning the public's scorn.
But something even more profound is wrong with Parliament. When I first worked at Westminster, both Tory and Labour parties contained men and women who had made something of their lives before going into politics. Tories were businessmen, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, bankers. Labour were trade unionists from the shop floor to the beer and sandwiches brigade, manual workers, academics, teachers, writers, and social workers, with a sprinkling of business people as well.
Too many today are career politicians. Compare, for instance, the backgrounds of Churchill (war reporter, historian, army officer and artist), Thatcher (research chemist and barrister) with that of Cameron (political adviser and PR man) and Miliband (TV journalist and Labour researcher).
The Commons needs more older, experienced people, who have seen something of the world and made something of their lives before entering the House. It needs to be a vocation, not a career with perks and benefits, advanced by grovelling to the whips.
Only when we get more grown-ups in the Commons, prepared to speak their minds openly and honestly, will the public again start to accord them some respect.
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