No G20 bounce for Brown in Populus poll

Silent Hunter

"..Interestingly, voters do give credit to the Prime Minister for how he handled the summit. 26 percent say they feel more positively towards him..."

F O O L S !

RW

But how does Parliament restore the reputation which has been lost?

"Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; ... But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed."

Smith, Hoon, Darling, McNulty and the rest have grabbed money from us (of course "no rules were broken"), and in the process have lost something much more valuable, the reputation of Parliament.

The worst thing about this is that they seem not even to be aware of what they have done.

Max Kaye

No dead cat, then?

(Apart from the frightened moggie in the photo).

Andrew Cadman

Its far too late to restore Parliaments reputation.

The expenses furore is just the hook for something much deeper: a general and now deeply entrenched belief that politicians as a rule treat the British people with contempt and hatred.

The public react to expenses because they are a human-scale manifestation of this general malady. Just as the 'Tory sleaze' scandals of the 90s concentrated on the escapades of a minority of Tory MPs, but were really emblematic of the moral tawdriness of John Majors administration as a whole: the real and underlying issue of sleaze during his administration was his and Lamont's refusal to resign after the ERM debacle. From that point onwards, a general 'aroma' of moral degradation hung around the government until it crystallised around Neil Hamilton and brown paper packets of cash.

Even if you remove the entire expenses issue, there is still a much deeper and underlying feeling of lack of trust in a lying, duplicitous and amoral Political Class that will take several years, if ever, to dispel.

Fergus Pickering

RW, quoting Iago is perhaps not the wayto go. I think the bard speaks somewhere of 'the bubble reputation' and it is Othello's concern with reputation (his wife's) that brings about his downfall and her death. Plainly politicians are much the same as the rest of us. Given the chance to cheat on our expenses that is what we do. Let those amongst us who are NOT on PAYE raise our hands nowif we have never been guilty of this. No, I thought not. The fault is in the system. If Cameron changes the system and makes it much more difficult to claim, hey presto! politicians will come up smelling sweeter. Years ago I worked (a little) for the BBC. The pay was dire but the expenses were munificent. Taxi firms blessed the beeb's name. In fact taxi firms bless the expenses system altogether. And what do you suppose the first class carriage is for? Point out to me the golden time when all MPs were as honest as the day is long. Look at the salt of the earth, the working class in parliament. Surely they... No? dear me!

Mitch

Face it,nobody who seeks power over others is fit to have it so we need to destroy the present system spectacularly like in "V" and start again.
I suggest a lottery/jury system system staggered over the year with remuneration based on current job,you serve one term then never again,penalties for crimes draconian,no party system any new legislation based on the Swiss system of petitions also old law removed the same way.
One more thing NO DEFICIT SPENDING AND NO PFI EVER!!!!.

In one fell swoop we eliminate the political class, petty legislation and put power truly in the hands of the people.

Austin Barry

When Brown, Darling and their expense-fiddling colleagues kept spouting the party line that 'We're uniquely well placed to weather the recession', I had thought they were referring to the country rather than themselves. Evidently not.

Forlornehope

I am sorry that this may sound prissy but I was recently approached about a scheme to reclaim some tax, paid in previous years. When I looked at it, while it was legal, it was not something that I would want to boast about doing. It did not pass what the Americans call the Washington Post test. I didn't do it. I would add that I make sure of using every legitimate allowance to the full. In this respect Brown's changes to the pension scheme actually benefited me quite a lot. Though as I owe my existence to Hitler and Hirohito (it's a long and romantic story!) that does not say much for Brown. The line between what is legal and what is ethical is not actually that fine.

Forlornehope

Mitch, There is a lot to be said for your jury approach. I'm not sure that you have got all the details right but it's a great start. One idea would be to start with this as a replacement for the House of Lords and move on from there.

The Bellman

More example of the public's inability - sustained by a lazy media - to distinguish process from output.

And for what exactly are they giving him credit? He might organise a mean summit, but it's a shame he botched the stewardship of our country's economy, which is supposed to be his main job.

Still, if his ability to host an exorbitantly expensive shindig is such a big deal, I predict a bright future for Gordon as a corporate events manager. (I was going to say 'in the hospitality industry', but that juxtaposition was too risible.) And the sooner he embarks on this thrilling new career path, the better.