Terry Waite: I’ll stand to sort out Parliament

03/06/2009

 I returned from a visit overseas the other day to be greeted with the first of several major explosions which continue as I write. If I mention clearing moats, horse manure and second homes you will know immediately to what I am referring.

 

As I see it, frustration and anger with politicians and the political system has been building up for a long time and the exposure by the Daily Telegraph provided the spark which has led to a massive outpouring of public resentment. The fact that, even today, some politicians do not seem to 
appreciate how angry people are is a measure of just how remote they 
have become from the everyday concerns of the population.

 

Jonathan Aitken, speaking on the Today Programme, put things very 
well I thought when he said that we seem to have moved from a society 
informed by conscience to one where compliance rules the day. One of 
the things that make people so angry is that Members of Parliament 
knew that the public would not stand for another pay rise and so they 
were given the nod and the wink to use allowances in the cavalier way 
they have done. How often have we heard in the past days the plea, 
‘We have done nothing wrong’?

Well, in the majority of cases that is correct but one needs to remember that MPs made their own rules. Compliance yes, but where was conscience? It is interesting to note that the majority of parliamentarians have done their best to exempt themselves from the freedom of information act. Now we see why. A whole new class of career politician has developed in the past few years - many of whom seem to have totally lost touch with the reality that you and I have to face. They were not slow to vote themselves pay increases when the rest of us were told to exercise restraint.

 

In my view MPs don’t do too badly. The money given to help them do their job is pretty generous and, given that many have extra sources of income, it means that very few if any are on the bread line.

 

I suspect that the resentment now being demonstrated is also due to the nonsense that has emanated from Parliament in recent years. We were promised a coordinated transport policy. Where is it? On the one hand we are told to care for the environment and on the other, despite the recommendations made by several inspectors, airport expansion continues to be supported. Where is ‘joined up’ government? 

 

Horrendous housing developments are encouraged with minimum attention 
to community building meaning the slums of tomorrow are now being 
erected. As for targets, well it’s better for my blood pressure that I don’t 
start on that subject. Enough to say that targets must bear a major 
responsibility for the financial mess we are in.

 

I have long argued that at a general election there ought to be a box that could be marked by voters who did not support any of the candidates. In other words it would be a way of registering disapproval of the whole system and, as the votes would be counted, we would all have an idea of how the electorate felt.

 

It would be a tragedy for us all if government slipped into the hands of extremists. Few would want that. But thank goodness that the frustrations are at last coming to the surface.

 

In the past I have been approached to stand for Parliament and in recent weeks have been approached yet again. I have always resisted partly because I did not want to waste my time fighting outdated party political issues in Parliament. The jingoism there is tedious in the extreme. Secondly, having had my family subject to the most intensive press scrutiny when I was in captivity I don’t want to have them suffer that again.

 

Without question, new MPs and their families are going to be in the spotlight whether they like it or not and as we have seen in recent days, the press can be pretty brutal.  The country however is in real danger and confidence in the political system will not easily be rebuilt but rebuilt it must be. It could be that a number of Independent MPs could at least aid the process of reform.

 

If we have the will we can get out of this mess and could be the better for it. I pray that will happen.

 

 

 

(Image by Alan Edwards)