Everybody Is Talking About It

12/05/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Everybody Is Talking About It
Another day, another round of horrific expenses headlines from the Telegraph, eagerly swarmed upon, leech-like, by the rest of the media.  Nothing makes a bigger story than some sleaze and corruption.  Out on the streets canvassing and leafletting, people often comment about these unfolding events and I’d like to share some of the responses I give to them in the hope that a little fresh air will be able to sneak in to the suffocating atmosphere that presently surrounds politics.

Before reading this post please see the notes* at the bottom.

“All politicans are stealing from the taxpayer.”
I would respectfully point out that the upcoming elections are for County Councillors (and MEPs, but I’ll let them defend themselves.)  County Councillors don’t have huge expense accounts, or huge wages, or second homes, or taxpayer-funded porn, or a moat.  I’m a county council candidate.  If I dug a moat, cars driving past my house would fall into it.  If my bathplug breaks, I have to go down to the local hardware store with my wallet just like you.  If I choose to pretend another residence is my main home, people will just think I’ve gone a bit mad.  They certainly wont offer me any money.  If I employ a gardener, or a cleaner, or any other sort of home-help, I’d have to do so out of my own pocket (and my pockets are not that deep.  My wife and I do our own housework thank you very much.)  If I wanted a grand piano tuned I would first need to own a grand piano.  Then I’d have to save up.  I guess what I’m saying is - please remember local politicans are not MPs.  At this level of government politicans of all colours and stripes (not just my own party) are simply decent, honest, hard-working folk who want to give something back to the community.  No more, no less.  It would be unfair to tar us with the same dirty brush presently aimed at the grandees on all sides.  It would be counterproductive too.  Councillors do great work.  The MPs will be held to account, I have faith in that.  Let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot and vote for some fringe looney out of spite, even is raving Lord Sutch Tebbit seems to suggest that would be a good idea.  It’s like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

“All MPs are corrupt.”
There are six hundred and forty-six MPs in the House Of Commons.  We’ve seen thirty or so names indicated in this expenses scandal.  By what measure does a couple of dozen or so from a total lot of six hundred and forty-six represent ALL MPs.  It doesn’t.  Do you think that maybe the Telegraph has withheld the other 6oo (ish) out of generosity?  It being such a good-hearted newspaper and all that?  Of course not.  It’s because all MPs are not the same.  Not even close to it.  Let’s get on and fix the problem, change the rules, sling out the real bad guys and get on with our lives. 

“What About Our Local MP?”
I’m glad you asked.  We’re a lucky constituency.  Now I’m not privy to all Mr. Moss’s details but from what I can see on his website it would appear that Malcolm Moss MP is one of those very good guys.  Malcolm has been publishing his expenses in some detail from his website for ages, which is more than many MPs have done.  He appears to keep no secrets, nor to do anything untoward.  In short, it would seem he’s precisely the sort of old-fashioned decent MP that everybody says they want (and we’ve got!).  Our prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Stephen Barclay PPC, I have come to know rather well from encounters during my campaign to be a County Councillor and he certainly seems to me to be a straightforward hard-working honest candidate, which is why I hope very much that he will end up as our MP.  I would even venture that that’s the nature of politics in North-East Cambridgeshire.  We aren’t perfect, I suppose, but nor are we currently part of this unsavory mess that’s going on and we should applaud that and hope it remains thus.
(Post updated after constructive criticism from other parties.)

**I’d like to stress that my blog contains entirely my own personal opinion.  It does not represent the opinion of the Conservative Party, nor of any other member other than myself.  I’m not infallible so I’m sure I won’t always be ‘right’.  But I do my best to speak my mind and the truth as I know it. Which is, I think, all any of us can do.

The Small Print (legally required during election campaigns.)
Published by Mrs D N Clark on behalf of Steve Tierney both of 111 High Street, March, Cambs PE15 9LH.

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