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Letter: Master of the hunt, we are undone - 23/05/09
I was just penning something on those MPs who seem to see themselves as country squires when along comes George Bowyer, Master of the Fitzwilliam Hunt. Into the constitutional mire he gaily trots: paradoxically declaring himself defender of the parliamentary expenses system: "the system that we have now"!
I was just penning something on those MPs who seem to see themselves as country squires when along comes George Bowyer, Master of the Fitzwilliam Hunt. Into the constitutional mire he gaily trots: paradoxically declaring himself defender of the parliamentary expenses system: "the system that we have now"!What a character! Straight out of the pages of a Jane Austen novel, Bowyer appears to be walking, talking proof that some of our local Tories might still be living in the 18th century.
You'd have thought a gentle soul in an empire cut dress might have explained to the dear chap that the size of a man's paypacket is no more proof of soundness than was Henry's codpiece a reliable indicator of marital bliss.
Anyway, Bowyer has dropped into our laps a valuable insight into the Tory parliamentary selection process. According to him, earning power or hypothetical earning potential is the key indicator of "calibre".
When banks sank they were stripped by departing employees. In fact, the nation itself was stripped. How can we now use anybody's wallet as a measure of their competence, let alone suitability for representing us? Don't we need rather the sort of person who can protect us from this kind of pillage?
Why should we imagine that our MPs could run any sort of business? The legislation which they produce is variable: some of it evidence that many of them could not run a business and that most of them have no idea how difficult they make it for businesses, even ordinary families, to comply with government requirements.
An age of fantastical pay packets has arrived together with monumental management incompetence and some core institutions are on their knees.
We need massive reform and it will be the work of years. Sticking plasters won't work.
Lesser paid mortals have so far put up with this and have battled on against the odds to make a profit, provide services or keep their families afloat. There are limits to peoples' patience and the failure of MPs to self-regulate undermines the mandate Parliament is given by the people to govern. We need to start treating ourselves and our elected representatives as adults. The country will not fall apart because we are having a constitutional crisis: there are enough people who can and will behave like grown ups.
When electing somebody I think voters' key responsibility is to try to measure the distance between what a politician says and what he votes for or against. It is the distance between the two that disengages people and makes them angry and cynical. There are MPs who are not caught up in the current expenses scandal and who have helped expose the problem. There are MPs who can be relied upon by their constituents to walk as they talk and to look after their best interests. We need many more of that ilk.
But first, we have the Euro elections on June 4. Green Party lead candidate for East Region Rupert Read has managed a tight budget: he has taken a year's unpaid leave to campaign. He has also signed a Clean Campaign Pledge, which is open to candidates of any other party to sign:
http://eastern.greenparty. org.uk/region/eastern region/euro-elections-2009/ clean-campaign-pledge.html.
http://www.opendemo cracy.net/ourkingdom/ rupert_read/clean_campaign.
Rupert's pledge is no gimmick: it is actually what he believes is right.
Caroline Lucas, already a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has been campaigning in Europe for properly receipted expenses for MEPs and is an active member of the cross-party Campaign for Parliamentary Reform (CPR), which has nominated her the UK's most pro-reform MEP. Her record should also give confidence to voters that the Green Party not only keen to work for reform but can achieve it.
Fiona Radic
On behalf of Peterborough and Fenland Green Party.
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