Arrogant Politicians.

Real issues are too important to leave to politicians. Most of them are just self-serving, brown-nosing little weasles. I lay the blame firmly at the door of party politics. However clever and sensible and well intentioned a politician is when they start out, the party system soon knocks it out of them.

You can’t get any real power unless you rise to a high position in a party. To do this you have to stick to the party’s policy. This policy is bound to be a hotch-potch because it’s been dreamed up by a committee, so nobody’s going to actually agree with all of it. But to be successful, a politician has to pretend that they agree with it all. Why? This makes no sense!

In consequnce, politicians gain advancement by lying about what they believe in. The better they are at lying, the more successful they become. When they finally get some power, they’ve forgotton that they are supposed to be public servants... they’re just arrogant, selfish liars.

It really makes me fume when I hear them avoiding important questions. A prime example was Jeremy Paxman’s interview with Michael Howard a few years ago. The issue was to do with Mr. Howard’s dealings with his subordinate who ran the prison system. Senior, respectable[3] people had accused him of behaviour which amounted to a serious abuse of the public office which he held. There was definitely a prima facie case to answer. Mr. Paxman asked Mr. Howard to deny the allegation more than a dozen times!! Each time, Mr. Howard refused to deny it. Instead he obfuscated, tried to change the subject, or ignored the question. In short he treated it like a game. The man held public office, and he stood accused of a serious abuse of that office. He should have been able to instantly deny the accusation. Instead he thought it was OK to simply avoid the question... as though it didn’t matter.

It’s not the alleged offence which galls me... its the attitude of this man, who treats allegations about misuse of public office no more seriously than he would salacious tittle-tattle.

Michael Howard is no more than a good example, I’m afraid. A small minority of politicians manage to avoid this trap, but most of them are wholly unfit to hold any sort of office.

[3] - I.e. people in a position to be authoritive, who had no axe to grind.

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