Margo MacDonald: The lunatic fringe is ready to benefit

Published on Wednesday 20 May 2009 09:44

THE fallout from Westminster's allowances scandal might change the political landscape of the UK much more fundamentally than had it come to the boil at a time other than a mere month before the EU and English council elections . . . and a year at most before a general election.

It's doubtful, even now that Speaker Michael Martin has stood down, that public respect and trust can be rebuilt in the institution that has inspired parliamentary democracy throughout the world.

It may be that the traditions, precedents and standards that comprise the modus operandi of the Mother of Parliaments will be judged to be flummery that obstructs transparency of decision making, and cocoons MPs in privilege.

For the careers and reputations of MPs, and for democracy itself, the tsunami threatening to destroy the supporting walls of the political system in the UK couldn't have happened at a worse time.

The load bearers of our democracy have been weakened and people are disillusioned with the institutions and services that really matter to our standard of living, quality of life and sense of security.

Events as seemingly unrelated as the near-collapse of the banking system, suicide bombers planning to cause death and destruction in our communities, rampant outbreaks of hospital-acquired infections, and other worrying traits of contemporary society, like climate change and antisocial behaviour, have conspired to undermine voters' assumptions about the competence of their elected representatives.

Although politicians as a species have never been loved, during the 20th century, amongst most of the people, most of the time, it was assumed that even though they never seemed to do much good, neither did they do much harm.

With improved information technology has come a sharper understanding of what elected representatives get up to, in both their professional and private lives. This has not enhanced their standing amongst the electorate, most of whom get on with their lives and ignore their MPs to the extent of being blissfully unaware of their names.

But the allowances scandal has changed that. Millions of voters now know their representatives' names. Voters have read newspaper accounts of how horse manure, plasma screen TVs or garden furniture had been obtained by MPs, "according to the rules" they devised to provide themselves with second homes. In some cases, these are essential. In some, they are excessively lavish.

Coming at a time when the same millions are scared stiff of losing their jobs, and/or their homes, such a thoughtless attitude to spending public money has caused great offence and anger. I suspect this was compounded by Speaker Martin's inadequate statement to the House of Commons and his flushed, flustered responses to questions from MPs.

Both the Tories' leader, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg, his Lib Dem equivalent, side-stepped comments on Mr Martin's competence and instead called for a general election to clear out the brass-necked tendency and start fresh. They were probably echoing sentiments heard in every living room in the UK as the TV news flashed pictures of hitherto-unknown MPs to accompany their allowances for "flipped" second homes, etc.

But in many of these homes in England, the fresh start envisaged is very different from those sought by the Tories and the Lib Dems.

The Greens and the most strongly anti-EU party, UKIP, will pick up votes from Labour, and less so, from the Tories. Regretfully, the timing of the current Westminster crisis may well rebound in favour of the British National Party.

The BNP have already won some seats in local councils south of the Border, and the general disgust with the mainstream parties has come at exactly the right time to help them into the EU parliament.

This would give the BNP a legitimacy, resources and a platform beside other parties that they've been denied until now because of their racism. Against the background of a House of Commons that's lost some self-confidence following a general election that could see the forced retirement of a higher than usual percentage of sitting MPs, and a growing importance of the bloggers and websites controlled by the political parties, new political groupings, including the BNP, could replace TV as the main means of getting to know what politicians are doing.

We're one step removed from this scenario in Scotland, but not many of us will take much pleasure from it.

Good sports

As a Hibee, I'm proud and delighted at the skills, flair and determination displayed by Mixu's marvels in the season's closing games. And, anxious not to show the same lack of sportsmanship as Liverpool's Rafael Benitez has shown to Man Utd's Alex Ferguson, I'll congratulate Edinburgh's other great team and wish Hearts well in Europe for the sake of the good reputation of football in Scotland.