I apologise if this ends up as some ramble of nonsense but I'm feeling particularly dissuaded today. Is it just me or is the world of politics throughout the UK, becoming as corrupt and shameful as the off-screen life of a Blue Peter presenter?
Hain - filtering money through a 'questionable' operation, then not declaring it, and looking astounded that anyone could frown upon such behaviour.
Derek Conway - almost unashamedly just taking taxpayers money and saying, "I'm going to use this to pay my kids through uni". Then saying he shouldn't be judged as corrupt because a) we don't get paid enough as MPs anyway, so I'm just taking what in my opinion I'm owed, and b) cos everyone else is at it. Then looking astounded that anyone could frown upon such behaviour.
The Balls' - renting their own house to themselves and getting us/the 'expense account' to pay for it and looking astounded that anyone could frown upon such behaviour.
Majority of MPs - After reluctantly agreeing to a 1.9% wage rise, instead of the 2.56% they had been recommended, MPs suddenly start saying that our £60k salary is not acceptable and should be anywhere between £80,000 and £100,000 then looking astounded that anyone could frown upon such behaviour.
(Ok, let me get this straight, so you missed out on 0.66% of a pay rise onto your £60,277. Over a year, you are missing out on £397.83 so, in what can only be described as the royal-mother's-cherry-on-top-of-a-very-angry-cake huff, you say we will forego payrises for the next few sessions if you bump our salary up with a one off increase of about £40,000?! I cannot believe that these debates even feature on any news bulletin, in any newspaper, or in any sane person's head, but worst of all, there doesn't seem to be an outcry of any kind. No MP, leading or otherwise, is standing up to his colleagues and saying, duuuuuh and the media are just reporting it, as opposed to questioning the ridiculousness of the situation. The BBC just seem terrified of upsetting the worst Prime Minister for a generation, showing absolutely none of the talent or scrutiny that journalism should be about. And ITV news doesn't count, cos when an organisation regards Trevor McDonald as a Keven Keegan-style saviour, you know they're not worth sneezing at. As a result, I've decided they get a paragraph to themselves...)
Journalists/the media - what are they doing in all of this? At first I thought they were tsunami-ed by so much scandal and ineptitude within politics that there was just too much to cover all of it, any of which in great detail. But these are major and unbelievable actions by some MPs which are not really being questioned, challenged. These MPs should be attacked and hounded, asked "will you be repaying the money?", "when will you resign?", "would you agree that you just a thieving git?".
If all that the media is going to do is tell us what's going on, then they purely just becoming a walkin'-talkin' press release on behalf of the parties, and jee-whizz we get enough of them already. Probe, investigate, ask, ask and ask again until you get an actual answer as opposed to some phrase rehashed five times by three different ministers.
What happened to a Scoop? Is that now solely the role of the blog?
A murky world of politics, inside and out, stands before us. 'Tis a sad day.
