Responsibility, Duty, Decency

Mr Eugenides observes that for all the talk – much of it reasonable – that the Tories are soft on liberty and that we lbertarian-types should therefore vote for UKIP (no thanks!), UKIP’s only MP, Bob Spink, voted with the government on 42 Days. In the comments, Trixy, of Is There More to Life Than Shoes fame, says this was fine because he wasmerely reflecting the views of his constituents.

Which means it’s time to give Edmund Burke’s famous 1774 speech in Bristol another airing…

“Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a Representative, to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and, above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own.