Letters / History repeats itself
I read of a call for a period of quiet (A period of quiet; SN, 03/06/15) regarding the affair of Alistair Carmichael’s apparent recent malfeasance during the run-up to the General Election.
In one way, I agree with it: Carmichael shouldn’t be hauled over the coals for personal reasons, because he wasn’t really doing anything particularly unusual (in regard to the somewhat shoddy way our politicians are allowed to operate these days).
In another way, I think that we should prepare ourselves for a period of considerable uproar – because this piece of business with Carmichael looks remarkably like yet another instance of ‘one rule for the political elite, and the opposite rule for the plebs who pay their salaries’.
The vital question right now is: ‘Is Britain running a respectable and admirable model of law and governance; or should that model be ignored and held in contempt by anyone who just happens to fancy doing things their own way?’
What we’ve seen in the past few years (in particular) is:
- cash for questions;
- the sale of Honours;
- the sale of fast-tracked passports to aliens, in exchange for commercial and financial considerations;
- institutionalised dishonesty in the matter of MPs’ expenses, all coered up by bleating ‘well, it was within the rules’ (which they wrote, by the way);
- the ‘flipping’ of MPs’ houses’ status as primary or secondary residences apparently for personal gain;
- the calculated profiteering behaviour arising from that activity, which comes very close to what most people would consider to be deliberate mortgage fraud;
- seats in the House of Lords being awarded to people who really shouldn’t even be hired to sweep the place out; and (most lately);
- the need for a Parliamentary Commission (at who knows what cost, on top of the alleged £1.4m that the initial enquiry has already set the taxpayer back?) to decide what is and is not ‘moral’ behaviour with regard to MPs telling their voters the truth. In short, ‘when is a lie not a lie?’
The actual list of what would be considered ‘offences’ by most of the British people who don’t have a personal stake in the matter, because they don’t stand to gain from committing them is quite long, but this short statement of extracts from it should convey the drift of my thinking.
Every time a politician publicly gets away with an action that would land an ordinary citizen in the dock (and possibly the award of a fine and/or custodial sentence as well), the British system of law and governance is brought further into disrepute.
Worse than that, whoever else is involved in the affair (the lawyers, the CPS and the police) also undergoes a further diminution of their reputation in the eyes of the public, along the lines of ‘they’re all the same’. (This also includes the police’s assumption that they can decide all by themselves what the law is and how they should apply it. If in doubt, consider the effectual decriminalisation of petrol theft. The judiciary decide what the law is – the police’s job is to enforce it wherever necessary, and not ‘decide’ whether it’s valid or not.)
The effect on the public’s regard for such people undergoes a ratchet effect of permanent incremental reduction of reputation without any possibility of it being redeemed, which will eventually have to be rectified by a general reset (with or without an enabling civil war) regarding how things have to be done in future.
British history records the events that led up to the execution of Charles I in 1649, followed by five years of arguably the most rancid and ineffectual Parliament ever seen by Britain.
The forcible dissolution of that Rump Parliament in 1653 put Oliver Cromwell in charge of cleaning up the mess, as the co-opted and unwilling Lord Protector. The whole business was expensive and messy, and is not the kind of thing that this country can afford to see a repeat of (thanks to Brown and his ‘advisors’ actions from 1997 to 2010 leaving this country effectively bankrupt).
Nevertheless, something has to be done to prevent our arrogant elected ‘representatives’ from doing as they please, and behaving exactly as if their ‘moral compass’ has never been swung.
We seem now in a very similar position to that of Britain’s reported position just prior to 1653 – with the one difference this time being that the monarchy is generally admirable and completely blameless.
I’ll remind the Letters page readers of what I wrote a few days ago: http://www.shetnews.co.uk/letters/10753-as-i-see-it and reiterate that I’m not on some kind of perverse politically-motivated witch hunt.
I believe that we are now at the point of requiring a general reset of how business is conducted in this country, and that to delay it any longer would in my opinion be most unwise.
Alistair Carmichael’s present situation merely highlights just how far things have slid in this country, and how urgently that matter needs to be put in hand. I don’t care who does it – but it has to be done, because it’s the only way in which Britain can start to get its self-respect back after decades of rotten government.
Philip Andrews
Unst
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