Whichever direction you face today you are likely to end up reading a story about Tory sleaze.
Whether it’s the Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself, Geoffrey Cox or anyone of a number of not so well-known MPs such as Laurence Robertson who represents the constituency where I live, it’s looking more and more like each and every one of the Conservative Members of Parliament have got their heads buried up to the neck in the trough.
As we observe what appears to be a quickly changing political environment with the Labour Party now leading the Tories by six points in the polls, it would be very easy to believe that sleaze and corruption is a problem which only affects this Government.
But it’s not. In fact, this whole sorry tale is an horrific indictment of just how rotten and sick the British political system and the people masquerading as public representatives within it have become.
If you’ve been following the development of this story since the vote in Parliament, Johnson’s epic U-Turn and the subsequent resignation of Owen Paterson, the MP for North Shropshire, you will no doubt have heard many MPs making the argument that having second jobs enriches the experience and therefore the ability of MPs to do their job.
The problem is, being a Member of Parliament is not a job.
Being a Member of Parliament is a responsibility. It is a vocation. A calling.
Becoming a Member of Parliament is an opportunity for public spirited leaders to do something selfless and important on behalf of others. People who either cannot represent themselves publicly or choose not to do so themselves.
Man can only have one master. And in a world where we have become obsessed with money and material wealth to the point where it is now treated like it is a God, it has never been so important that our public representatives have not been elected or taken the responsibility of public office simply to prioritise benefits or opportunities for themselves.
Contrary to what Labour Members of Parliament would like us to believe, they are no better themselves. The point being made only too clearly by the additional earnings that Labour leader Keir Starmer has accumulated in his secondary role as a Barrister since he was first elected to Parliament.
We simply have the wrong people sitting in Parliament. We have the wrong people sitting in Parliament because the system is skewed in such a way that it prevents other more publicly minded people from taking up seats at Westminster where they could actually do some good for us all.
It will not matter which of the existing Political Parties achieve a majority or take part in a coalition government following the next General Election. All of our MPs are fundamentally the same.
Until such time as we create a new political movement with MPs, Councillors, Mayors, Police & Crime Commissioners and politicians of all kinds that do everything they tell us they will do, rather than making promises that they never keep, we will continue to be condemned as a Country with all tiers of government filled up with politicians who are simply unfit to lead.
Motivation will never be an issue for politicians who get elected to their public roles for the right reasons with the intent to only do the right things.
£82,000 a year Plus expenses and the opportunity to live in London for most of the time represents a standard of living and life experience that many normal people in the UK would not even dare to dream of. Yet our MPs believe that they should be entitled to even more. All at a time when it is becoming ever clearer that our political class is simply not fulfilling the responsibilities and requirements of their roles.
If we want change, we have to create it.
If we want change, we have to be that change ourselves.
If we want change, we have to change the way that we think and accept that the way we get our public representatives to behave differently is to begin by changing the way that we behave ourselves.
Adam Tugwell 