A sorry state of affairs
Matthew d'Ancona 3:01pm
Gordon’s “Sorry” looks and sounds like catch-up – for the good reason that this is precisely what it is. In my Sunday Telegraph column yesterday, I argued that the British polity had slipped backwards on the moral evolutionary path from a “guilt culture” (governed by moral conscience) to a “shame culture” (governed only by fear of discovery) – if you are interested in this all-important distinction, by the way, try Ruth Benedict’s classic work of anthropology, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Only disclosure, or the threat of disclosure, has forced our parliamentarians to promise reform. I am not saying that their forbears were all paragons of individual ethical conduct. But this lot need to be forced to reveal even the smallest slip-up. They are (let me say it again) a bunch of second-rate spivs.
All parties are guilty – but some are guiltier than others. The Prime Minister, unlike David Cameron, resisted the opening up of the books earlier this year, and tried, shamefully, to bounce Cameron and Nick Clegg into a daft pre-emptive package of reforms with his toe-curling YouTube intervention. Much worse, he declined until this morning to apologise for a political story that, more than any other in recent memory, has reached far beyond the Westminster village and daily followers of its antics, and become the subject of water-cooler wrath in every workplace. Not everyone cares about carbon emission targets, or tax credit policy, or PFI statistics, but everyone – and I do mean everyone – knows it is wrong to charge the taxpayer for tampons, or Jaffa Cakes or fancy gardening.
Gordon’s interim position over the weekend – that it was the disembodied “System” that was to blame, and that we should all congratulate him for reforming it – could not have been worse. A close second was Lord Mandelson’s claim that it was all a wicked media conspiracy. If I were a member of a political caste which had just been shown to have its noses so firmly in the trough, I would have refrained from accusing anyone of mounting a plot. One could almost have formed the impression over the weekend that Gordon and Peter thought there was really nothing all that wrong with these deplorable practices and it was all just the ghastly right-wing press up to its usual tricks. There was a time when these two master strategists would have seen instantly what was required. Look how out of touch they have become during 12 years of Labour in office.
Fresher and hungrier for power, Cameron grasped, as they did not, that there was no alternative to apology: the bigger and fatter, the better. This is a case where the only shred of dignity that politicians can salvage from the disaster is to put their hands in the air, turn themselves in, and say: “It’s a fair cop.” On the terrible spectrum available to political class at the moment, this is the best available option. It means that – maybe, just maybe - Mr Cameron will be despised a little less than the Prime Minister. And even that is not a certainty.
If treason is a matter of dates, then so are political apologies. If Gordon is sorry today, why wasn’t he three days ago? Answers on a postcard please.
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Alex
May 11th, 2009 3:27pm Report this commentthe one thing - of course - that was missing was a pledge from cameron to take action against those MPs who have inappropriately claimed expenses
paracelsus
May 11th, 2009 3:48pm Report this comment'The Chrysanthemum and the Sword' is an excellent read, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Japanese culture and its development. However, even Japan is now changing and slowly moving away from this cultural system. It is no where near as dramatic as our own fall from moral grace, but the system is changing. A lot of the young struggle to identify with the culture and structure so entrenched in all aspects of Japanese life. How long before their culture is also infected with a laissez-faire attitude towards moral right and wrong?
Common Place
May 11th, 2009 4:03pm Report this commentFurtive and in denial.
DavefromLuton
May 11th, 2009 4:15pm Report this commentI am pleased he is sorry but what is he going to do to show he really means it?
Are all MPs to be asked to refund money to which they are not entitled? Are the worst offending cabinet ministers being asked to resign.
Without specific and measurable contrition 'sorry' is just an empty word.
I am not holding my breath!
wound-up
May 11th, 2009 4:34pm Report this comment"second rate spivs".......
and on a good day, "wheel tappers and shunters"
Publius
May 11th, 2009 4:45pm Report this commentAs long as right is treated as a system or "value" to be adopted, rather than a truth to be discovered, then the rot will continue.
Funny, isn't it. We pay MPs more and more and more, in the name of equality and "access", and we end up with lowlife scum.
John Adlington
May 11th, 2009 4:55pm Report this commentLabour CLPs and Conservative Associations need to start de-selecting people. I want to see blood spilt. If we voters don't see any sanction against troughing MPs we will draw the inevitable conclusion that the Conservative Party like the Labour Party thinks that at worst these egregious mis-uses of public funds are mere peccadillos.
Liz Brown
May 11th, 2009 5:15pm Report this commentGormless was pathetic in his attempt to say sorry - too little too late. Where are the apologies from rollover darling and buffhoon - don' they fall into the same, if not worse category as the chipmunk - silence too from stasi smith
Boudicca
May 11th, 2009 5:26pm Report this commentCameron's apology at least sounded genuine. But there is still the small matter of the money.
Many of the expenses claimed and paid appear to be fraudulent; they definately don't conform to the requirement to be essential expenditure and above reproach.
So when is Cameron going to tell his Shadow Cabinet and his Whips tell the rest of the Tory MPs, that anyone who doesn't pay the money back will not be serving in his Cabinet and/or be deselected.
An apology is fine: where are the reparations?
The Preston Park Panther
May 11th, 2009 5:40pm Report this commentOf course, another interesting thing is that a good number of the culprits won't be able to repay the vast amount of money they've swiped - they've spent it. And if the Revenue gets off its knees and starts applying its jacked-up interest charges and fines... No wonder our masters are running scared. Such a shame.
Susan Hill
May 11th, 2009 5:55pm Report this commentWhen my children were small I always told them that if they broke something and came and owned up and said they were sorry and MEANT IT I would forgive them at once and not be cross. If, however, they hid the broken pieces under the cushion and lied that they had not broken a thing, and then I found said pieces, I would be very very cross indeed and punishment would ensue.
Pity more MPs didn`t listen to their mothers.
John Adlington
May 11th, 2009 6:40pm Report this commentBoudicca, it's too late. MPs who acted badly have no way back. They must not be Conservative MPs. Withdraw the whip and de-select the guilty immediately. Do you really think there can ever be a place on a Tory front bench for a troughing hog like Alan Duncan? The man is an avaricious slimeball. I'm not voting Conservative again until I see some action.
Thomas Cussans
May 11th, 2009 6:50pm Report this commentThe question is not: 'If Gordon is sorry today, why wasn't three days ago?' It's: 'If Gordon is sorry today, why wasn't three years ago?'
To which the simple and obvious answer is that he's not sorry that MPs have so systematically abused their expenses. He's sorry that they have been found out.
TGF UKIP
May 11th, 2009 10:50pm Report this commentNot one of your admirers Mr d'Ancona, but apart from your muted, and I suppose inevitable, cheerleading for your mate Dave I congratulate you on a splendid take on the matter.
You might, however, wish to have a word with one or two of your staff over their indecent haste to put maximum spin and gloss on the Telegraph's revelations about their mate Two Elephants Gove last night. Their feeble attempts were smashed for six by the Telegraph's detailed coverage this morning.
I'm also surprised that you make no attempt to use the Speccie's influence to call for sackings but perhaps Maude is a special friend of the Speccie as well.
I'm also amazed to see no call for constituency chairmen to act in the public and party interest.
rhys burriss
May 12th, 2009 3:03am Report this commentThis has arisen because of the grip of the professional political class on the Commons - in all major Parties. They all need de-selecting and the way made clear for persons with 20 or more years of real life real job experience to become candidates. But - hello - how could Cameron - whose whole career has been facilitated by privilege and recommendations rather than merit - lead such a change ?
Carl
May 12th, 2009 9:21am Report this commentThe sackings should start now, with the pathetic excuse for a Speaker to go first. The stables are filthy, lets force them to clean themselves out.
Esther
May 12th, 2009 11:54am Report this commentIn the midst of all of this, can we remember to still be very angry indeed about those MEPs (mostly Tory) in the EU Parliament who swindled the expenses system there to an even greater extent than their colleagues at Westminster. Will they be pursued to pay back their ill-gotten gains, taken "within the rules"?
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