Boris Johnson damaged by Owen Paterson scandal but so is democracy – Kenny MacAskill MP

Boris Johnson has certainly been damaged by his handling of the Owen Paterson scandal.

Boris Johnson's government is full of spivs and chancers who are damaging democracy, says Kenny MacAskill (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

How long term that’ll be is hard to say but it’s exposed the self-seeking charlatan that lies beneath the veneer of “jolly buffoonery”. Paterson’s crime was flagrant and the chicanery in trying to save him deplorable – it’s the cover-up that gets you, as they say.

The Tories’ behaviour in seeking to change a system brought in after a past expenses scandal was worsened by many of the main cheerleaders being guilty of past offences and some of them pretty scandalous.

All parties have individuals who err and shame their cause – politicians are human after all. But what’s clear is that overwhelmingly those exposed in Parliament have been Tories.

The air of kleptocracy that surrounds this administration and the spivs and chancers who’ve taken it over and who pushed for Brexit feels endemic.

Harold Macmillan's phrase “you’ve never had it so good” was meant to apply to the country, not Tory MPs with their snouts in the trough. There are, of course, good and principled Tories, and Sir John Major’s one and he rightly and waspishly condemned this new regime.

But they’re in deep and the days of John Major are passing. Some political behaviour – especially within parties and institutions – is cultural, and when actions become normalised or even just accepted, it can be a long road back. I fear those decent Tories have their work cut out.

It's not just Johnson but democracy that’s damaged. Politicians are all the same becomes a mantra from some, when they’re self-evidently not.

It doesn’t just undermine the portals of Westminster but all democratic institutions. Holyrood and councils will be accused of similar corruption when the opportunity rarely applies there.

There’s council elections next year. Being a councillor is a hard enough shift with long hours and little reward, without accusations of simply wanting to line your own pocket.

With vitriol and bile worsening against the body politic, corruption within it will simply drive good people away, and it’s democracy that suffers. In order to encourage decent people to take part in politics, rooting out corruption’s essential.

Kenny MacAskill is Alba Party MP for East Lothian

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