As a Parliamentary intern, you would not believe the amount of work and correspondence that goes into being a member of Parliament. Its a catch Twenty-Two. If Members of Parliament were not to respond to letters, or seen to be doing their jobs to the highest standards, they would be ridiculed and lynched by the public. But when they do, they get accused of spending too much on expenses. Perhaps if the press or those complaining about Parliamentary expenses were to spend a week in an M.P.’s office, they would quickly realise why the costs are so high. If its such a problem, lets have a dictatorship run the country. That would certainly cut expenses! But if you want Democracy, it comes with a cost!
October 27, 2006 at 5:54 pm
Here here!! Could not agree more, what would be most interesting would be to see the expenses of the political journalists who are currently slagging of MP’s? I would guess that the like’s of Nick Robinson etc are paid lot more than messers Blair, Brown and Prescott. I seem to recall Sky’s Political Editor Adam Boulton being on a salary of £400,000. So those journalists slagging MP’s and Minister’s off in there papers and on the TV media should put up or shut up, tell us what your paid and your expenses, then join the debate. Also is it’s really acceptable for the BBC to take the moral high-ground when it comes to MP’s salary’s and expenses? We only have to recall some of the eye-watering salary’s some of big name presenter’s are paid.
If we is being totally honest MP’s and Minister’s are frankly not paid enough for the work they do and neither are there staff. It’s frankly disgraceful that the Prime Minister is paid less than the Chief Civil Servant of the Country, also compare the PM’s yearly wage to those in the city. The problem is politican’s reputation is so damaged that it would be impossible to justify an increase in the budget for MP’s and Lord’s. It’s interesting that in most survey’s people think there local MP’s does a very good job no matter what political party he or she is from, but at a national level politicians have a pretty awful reputation.
I hope in the future the British public and the media can accept that like Sams say’s; democracy comes at a cost. But I don’t hold my breath as too many of my fellow citizens won’t understand this simple concept.
October 28, 2006 at 11:39 am
I could not agree more Manjit. You raise some very interesting points. At a time when more and more people are turning thier backs on politics, why is it that people are showing real satisfaction with thier Local MP’s but not with national government? I would have thought that effective local government would translate into a higher opinion of national Government. In your mind, whats the reasoning?
November 9, 2006 at 3:13 am
My apologies for taking so long to respond, the demands of modern life etc
You ask why people are showing distaste towards national government? I would say that the public is showing distaste towards the whole body of national politics. There are various reasons for these things such as the Iraq war do not increase trust in politicians of all parties. Other policy area’s have a negative impact on the reputation of politicians, also as Blair often say’s people have rising expectations of Government because of what they see in the private sector when it is not fulfilled it’s creates a negative impression. For me one of the biggest reason’s why the public have distaste for the body of politics is the media. They have raised expectations to such a level that no political party or politician is likely to meet them. Look at the scandalous way they treated the story of MP’s expenses not a single highly paid newspaper columnist was prepared to defend MP’s. Instead they retorted to cheap journalism and implied that all politicians were corrupt, if the public are told day after day by the Sun etc that politicians are in it for themselves then they start to believe it. The truth is politicians and parties are more scrutiny than any other sector in society, if the private sector overspends on a IT project it’s page 33 in the Times, if the NHS does it’s front-page news. If a MP leaves his wife then it merits news, if a Government Minister is involved in scandal then they will have to endure 2/3 weeks of intensive media scrutiny that would make even Kate Moss squirm. Then the news media is really only interested in negative news, who wants to hear positive news about falling crime, or falling NHS waiting time? Who wants to hear about the Lab/Lib Dems and Tories working together in Select Committees and Standing Committees in Parliament to hold the Government to account? Who wants to hear about the day-to-day work of MP’s in holding the Executive to account? Last week the House of Commons voted through Jack Straw’s modernisation proposals, not a single newspaper covered the story. Yet these new measures will increase the powers of Standing Committees and reduce the power of the Executive. I’m sure lazy journalists would prefer to discuss how Parliament was much better in there so-called ‘Golden Era’ and how now it’s nothing more than a rubber stamping chamber, which is complete and utter rubbish.
The respect for local MP’s is similar to the respect people have for their local NHS services. People I think see them working effectively in there own area but because the new nationally is so mixed and negative they decide that politicians are bad.
Something like the current ‘cash for honours’ scandal or the racism row in the Tories might be good fun politically but I guess for alot of non-political people it reinforces people’s views that politicians are out of touch etc.
Some of my arguments are a little atypical, as I’m not intending this to be academic piece. But the main point is that if something is constantly run down then people will begin to take a negative view of it. Things to improve politics reputation:
- Reduce voting age to 16
- Introduction of new voting system (PR)
- Increase the role of technology in voting i.e. allow voting by phone and Internet etc
- Have ‘election’ spread over 3/4 days and the weekend rather than just one day. In continental Europe they tend to have weekend voting and higher turnout. Why not start voting on Thursday’s and end it on Sunday, then have results on Sunday evening. The new PM can be sworn in on Monday morning.
- Elected Second Chamber (re-name it as well)
- Compulsory Voting (as they have in Belgium and Australia)
- English Parliament – proper federalism
- Proper local devolution (based on German model)
- Written Constitution (much clearer separation of powers)
- Role of Quango’s and executive agencies to be clearly defined
- All Government briefings to be on the record and open to the cameras like in America
- Each Departmental Minister must give a monthly press conference like the PM does now
- The PM must appear before the Head’s of Select Committee’s once a month rather than every 6 months
- Cabinet Ministers must appear once a month in front of there departmental Select Committee’s
- MP’s expenses in Westminster should have the same transparency as those in the Scottish Parliament
- MP’s should reduce there long summer holiday
- PMQ’s should be put back until 8:00pm on Wednesday so it’s a prime time occasion and carried live on the BBC, this will make it much more of a occasion. Plus planted questions must be banned.
- Improvements need to be made to citizenship classes at schools
Those are just some idea’s, they are perhaps more structural but I think they could help to improve the reputation of the body politics. To be fair to Labour they did start of with good intentions but they have failed to implement fully there devolution program and the reform other aspects of the constitution. Having said that I doubt to many Brit’s are losing sleep about the voting system or the second chamber, as Blair correctly identifies most want a functioning NHS and education system etc. So perhaps the most important things for politics at a national level is ‘delivery’. But then we get onto an interesting question: can Government’s actually deliver with the various external constraints on them? EU, IMF, America, Economy, Media, Electoral cycle, internal party politics etc.
Oh the joys of politics
December 30, 2006 at 4:35 pm
This article by Martin Kettle sum’s up some excellent points on the issue of ‘trust’ pointing out the whole blame cannot be layed at Blair’s door any more than it can be layed at Major’s door. There is a deeper problem within Britian and amongst the general population.
We can’t just blame our lack of trust on Tony Blair’s ‘lies’
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,,1980170,00.html
January 3, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I agree there is always going to be a cost of expenses, and one that is worth paying. I think what is being highlighted here is the need to some efficiency and some accountability as to these costs. If i’m told that MP X needs £1 million in expenses, and it is for a good reason… then fantastic! We just need to make sure public money is being used effectively.
MP’s, like any public servant, need resources to back their work. But in the same was as hospitals and schools, there should be justification for the money needed, and investment given.