Sunday, May 10, 2009

Contempt and Loathing

It is possible that we haven't seen such a wide-scale level of loathing towards the elected members of the House of Commons for several generations. Matthew D'Ancona, in his Telegraph piece, references Lewis Namier's great work - but he was exposing the hypocrisy and place seeking of George III's MPs!

There really isn't anywhere for an MP to turn today. The comments of over 400 people on Nick Robinson's blog are almost uniformly hostile. The Observer's Andrew Rawnsley and Nick Cohen are scathing, while the attempted defence of the wretchedly venal Luton MP, Margaret Moran - who must wish her career had remained in deserved obscurity - are published for all to mock on the Times' blog by Sam Coates. Could we really be witnessing the beginnings of a whole-sale political clear-out? Or will we just all forget this ever happened and return the same amoral, tax-dodging, money-grabbing shirkers to parliament next time?

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