Parliamentary Expenses
Apr. 10th, 2014 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloYou're never going to get into parliament without the backing of a party machine. And the party machines want people who are happy to run with the herd, think with the herd, do as the herd does. Sturdy individualists need not apply.
And so we end up being governed by people who have no political ideas or personal ethics apart from those of the herd.
Maria Miller is a typical specimen. She fiddled because everyone else was fiddling, because the herd regarded such behaviour as a perk of the job. She might have got away with it if she hadn't been so arrogant- or if she'd occupied a place a little higher up in the hierarchy.
She's not exceptionally wicked. The problem is systemic.
And so we end up being governed by people who have no political ideas or personal ethics apart from those of the herd.
Maria Miller is a typical specimen. She fiddled because everyone else was fiddling, because the herd regarded such behaviour as a perk of the job. She might have got away with it if she hadn't been so arrogant- or if she'd occupied a place a little higher up in the hierarchy.
She's not exceptionally wicked. The problem is systemic.
