THESE are indeed tumultuous times. No matter where I go, people are angry.
Taxi drivers harangue me, friends call to express outrage, e-mails flood in from incensed readers. Farmers, with no time for political chatter, stop to convey their fury and I dare not print the words used by people I meet every day on the streets. Who can blame them?
Many are struggling to pay their bills, hang onto their jobs and stay solvent, while outrageous expense claims by MPs send waves of revulsion throughout the land. Allowances for second and third homes, repayments for non-existent mortgages, claims for swimming pools, porn, furniture, gardening, entertainment, with no opportunity lost to benefit at taxpayers’ expense.
But public fury isn’t just about money, it’s about hypocrisy. It’s about tax-free benefits denied to all but the chosen few. It’s about exemption from their own rules and regulations. It’s about pension schemes devised to protect members from the financial turmoil they created. Most of all, it’s about the erosion of democracy.
A conceit persists among politicians of all persuasions that they know best, and public opinion must be ignored or manipulated to save us from ourselves.
Consider the shameful about face on the promised EU referendum, when a No vote became obvious, or the hasty withdrawal of the vote on regional government for the same reason, justified by disingenuous claims that postal voting was "unreliable". Did they consider us completely stupid? Arrogantly, they did.
The disgraceful reaction of our political leaders to the resounding No given in the Irish EU referendum was to insist on another vote and a change of rules to enable Brussels to press ahead regardless. Such is the contempt felt by our elected representatives for democracy.
Politicians remained supremely oblivious to the growing discontent felt by a disenfranchised public, increasingly at odds with the political process where ‘public consultations’ were but window dressing for previously determined policies.
The repetitive loss of sensitive files, billions wasted on failed IT projects, and the acquisition of expensive helicopters totally unfit for purpose, all swept aside without consequence, while in the real world loyal employees lost their jobs, homes and pensions without redress.
History will not judge the expenses issue to be the powder keg that destroyed a Parliament, but an accelerant thrown on an already smouldering inferno of public rage. It’s going to take a lot more than a new Speaker to extinguish the flames.
Voters are in no mood to accept anything less than a total change of culture and genuine respect for democracy. Neither of which is likely to be forthcoming from current Westminster incumbents.
We need to see arrogance replaced with humility; deceit with integrity, self-service with public service and it all begins with the selection process. Truth is, current members of all parties belong to the old discredited regime that saw nothing wrong with the present corrupt system until they were caught.
A few short weeks ago not one of the three main party leaders were expressing any concern at the grotesque expense culture. For them to react now with mock abhorrence is an insult to our intelligence, and their condemnation of others utterly contemptible.
Nothing less than a new Parliament will win back public confidence, and Independents could have a field day. Westminster may never be the same again.
The views on this page are Vic Barlow's and not necessarily those of the Express
