Why Are People So Surprised About Sleaze In Politics? Following the fiasco and resignation of Owen Patterson from parliament, I cannot understand why people are surprised when these things happen.
Members of parliament, including the Prime Minister, are human beings from the same community as everyone else. They have the same ups and downs. Although it would appear that the general public put politicians on a pedestal because they believe that your standards of integrity should be above reproach if you are in government.
We asked people who hold certain positions and offices to forget that they are human beings and behave in a manner that goes above and beyond what we class as ordinary human beings. But the vast majority, in my opinion, or incapable of acting in that way. The public expects the Police service to serve fair and treat everyone equally, but we know from experience that some police officers do not treat everyone fairly. There is a difference in the way they treat minorities to the way they treat white people.
It is again, in my opinion, to believe that politicians are any different. We all can bend the rules if it benefits our friends and us and to think that our members of parliament are above bending rules is naive on the part of the public.
In every aspect of public life, there is corruption among particular sections of our community, which will continue as long as this world goes on. The only thing is that most of these people believe that they will never be caught, or their counterproductive ways will never come to light.
What is happening with the Owen Patterson situation is not new, and I do not think he has any regrets about his decision. He told an interviewer that he would do so again; this man genuinely does not believe he did anything wrong. His action may have caused him to resign, and he will no longer be a member of parliament, but does anyone think that he cared that much about what he did to his constituency and the people who trusted and believed in him.
Be the first to comment