highbarnet.org » mp’s expenses http://highbarnet.org News from High Barnet Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:05:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 MP’s expenses http://highbarnet.org/2009/05/18/mps-expenses/ http://highbarnet.org/2009/05/18/mps-expenses/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 11:32:00 +0000 duncan http://highbarnet.org/2009/05/18/mps-expenses/ The MP’s expenses scandal shows no sign of abating. The reaction on the doorstep over the weekend has been ‘interesting’. The most common reaction from those that bring up the subject is to say that they are not going to vote at all and that all the parties are a bad as each other. I often wonder if people who take that view ever stop to think about the person who has just canvassed them. Activists from all parties are getting the same reaction but why do so many of us carry on knocking on doors?

The answer is probably a mixture of things. Most people who get as far as being politically active are driven by the belief that their party offers the best policies / philosophy / programme and that electing their candidates will make a real difference. I’m sure that most activists are as appalled by the behaviour of some MP’s as the general public are. In fact probably more so as in many constituencies years of hard work will have been undone or severely damaged by their actions.

The silver lining in all this must be that surely now we will have reform both of the expenses system and a wider look at how our democracy works or too often does not work at both national and local level. What would really make a difference though would be if some of those who express the view that ‘all politicians are the same’ actually decided to make a difference themselves and get involved to ensure that not all politicians are the same.

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