The ongoing row over second jobs for MPs has certainly proven to be an interesting one. Yet it has also become increasingly concerning to follow as it has become ever more obvious that so very few of the journalists, commentators and people working around the political sphere have any real consideration or respect for what the role of an MP and public representative should really be all about.
The comments and arguments for second jobs range from the suggestion that MPs with second jobs enrich links with and understanding of the real world, to additional money being the only way to make the job worthwhile. Whilst those against include suggesting that it would be fine to ban second jobs for MPs, but only if they were given a ‘realistic’ salary’.
Nobody seems to have mentioned that being an MP or public representative is not a job.
Being an MP is a responsibility to others. It’s not one that should be taken if the individual concerned cannot guarantee that their responsibility to others will not be compromised by prioritising income, career opportunities, fears, influences of any kind, or any other motivations that put their own needs before anyone else at any time, at any level or in any way.
It is part of the human condition that we can only be loyal to one master. MPs are no different to anyone else. If an MPs priority is income or career at any level, it will not be focused on anyone else.
There are simply no grey areas with this. It really is very black and white.
If an MP can be swayed in their decision making by any factor which will reflect on them personally at any level and in absolutely any way before anything or anyone else, they can be bought. As such, they cannot be relied upon to represent the general public and the voters within the constituency who elected them.
Being an MP or elected politician of any kind requires people who have the life experience, understanding of others and are at a stage within their own lives where they can willingly and unswervingly put the needs of others before themselves in every meaningful way.
It is because we have for so long had a Parliament full of MPs on all sides of the political divides that are ruled by self interest at some level and in some way, that the British Political system – and as a result the whole of the UK – is in the mess that it is in today.
Public service can be the only master of any politician who wants to fulfil the obligations of the role with which they have publicly been entrusted. There simply is no other way.
For as long as we keep electing politicians in this Country and allow them to frame their own roles as careers and jobs, their attitude will continue to focus their attention on nothing other than what the impact and consequences of their actions will be for their future and for themselves before anything else.
There will be many who suggest that this is the way that the system works and that you can only change the system from within. The regrettable truth is that this is a myth perpetrated only for the benefit and furtherance of the interests of those already within that system. People who have a massive investment in ensuring that nothing happens which could bring about the comprehensive systemic change that would serve to help and benefit us all.
Sadly, until we all come together and accept that the people leading this country in government, the establishment and the wider public sector are not working to put our collective best interests, we are doomed to live the same experience. Public policy is today created in all areas of life where the decisions have been made not with us as the priority, but with what is important to the people we elected being always put first.
We only have ourselves to blame for each and every day that this sordid and perverse idea of democracy continues to rule, impinge and inflict avoidable pain and chaos in our lives.
None of the Political Parties that we have on offer to us today are focused on all of us in the way that they should be.
It is we who must make the decision to elect MPs and politicians of all kinds who will make promises and then keep them. Because they are there in our Parliament because politics is a calling or a vocation for them, rather than just an interpretation of a career or a job. One that to them is nothing more than getting the maximum return for themselves for the least amount of work.
We need a real choice in politics. We need MPs who understand and genuinely care. We need #ANewPartyForAll for the next General Election.
To achieve this, we need to start thinking differently and begin to build the alternative to the madness we have got right now.
If you really want all this to change, please visit www.anewpartyforall.org and think about the power that you have to input and help to bring about change.
Adam Tugwell 