There is an excellent Website called TheyWorkForYou that tracks the Parliamentary Activities of UK Politicians in the Assemblies, Commons and Lords. Unfortunately it does not track their other activities, their second, third, or even fourth jobs, their trips paid for by overseas Governments (which in some cases it appears has meant certain MPs have become 'agents of influence' ) and playing the expenses game so far outside the relaxed rules that some face criminal proceedings.
It makes you wonder how they find the time to represent the people who elected them. Well of course if you have multiple jobs and are busy on junkets paid for by foreign governments, whilst fiddling your expenses, you have to fit the representing of your constituents and helping to decide on what is best for the Nation into whatever time is left over (not much)!
I have for a long time now viewed British Politics as a trade, rather than a profession and certainly not an elite. I also have long realised that as in some other trades the number of 'dodgy operators' is significant, but even as a hardened cynic, I am stunned at how bad it has become.
I was brought up on the principle that even if you cannot respect the Man (or Woman), respect the Position they hold.
The inability of Parliament to self regulate it affairs, to stamp out corruption and to remove the corrupt, means I cannot respect the institution, the position of the members nor the members themselves. I used to believe that most MPs were reasonably honest, and attempting to do the job well (even if not actually that good at it) and from this group a few would make good Ministers of the Crown. Belief has now been replaced by hope and prayer, not helped by David Cameron replacing Tony Blair in the Murdoch Bed.
How long before Nigerians begin to view their Politicians as being more honourable than their British Counterparts?
The ways things are going not long,
It makes you wonder how they find the time to represent the people who elected them. Well of course if you have multiple jobs and are busy on junkets paid for by foreign governments, whilst fiddling your expenses, you have to fit the representing of your constituents and helping to decide on what is best for the Nation into whatever time is left over (not much)!
I have for a long time now viewed British Politics as a trade, rather than a profession and certainly not an elite. I also have long realised that as in some other trades the number of 'dodgy operators' is significant, but even as a hardened cynic, I am stunned at how bad it has become.
I was brought up on the principle that even if you cannot respect the Man (or Woman), respect the Position they hold.
The inability of Parliament to self regulate it affairs, to stamp out corruption and to remove the corrupt, means I cannot respect the institution, the position of the members nor the members themselves. I used to believe that most MPs were reasonably honest, and attempting to do the job well (even if not actually that good at it) and from this group a few would make good Ministers of the Crown. Belief has now been replaced by hope and prayer, not helped by David Cameron replacing Tony Blair in the Murdoch Bed.
How long before Nigerians begin to view their Politicians as being more honourable than their British Counterparts?
The ways things are going not long,
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