Public faith in politics may be the casualty of this scandal

As with expenses, politicians are tempted down the route of self-flagellation which does not tackle the root problem.

By Olly Grender Published 14 July 2011 13:13

"It was the Sun wot won it" crowed the front page after the 1992 general election. On the previous day, their front page warned the voters "If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights". Sometime later, a story emerged that in a focus group someone said "I didn't vote for Neil Kinnock because I heard he had a light bulb inside his head". Entirely plausible, because people often have impressions of politicians and rarely -- oh, so rarely -- have the detail.

It would be no great surprise in a focus group today to discover that everyone believes David Cameron's wife held a slumber party for Rebekah Brooks, when it was actually Sarah Brown; that Tony Blair went horse riding with Brooks when it was David Cameron; that Nick Clegg held a séance with James Murdoch, which I know to be untrue in the same way I know that Neil Kinnock never had a light bulb inside his head.

Which is why when it comes to this next step towards truth and reconciliation between the media and politicians, we should all be cautious. People will, at the end of this, believe that all of them are as bad as each other, and be left with an impression of sleaze running through the media, police and politics.

Don't get me wrong -- there most definitely should be a judicial inquiry, which goes wider than News International. As Nick Clegg says in his speech today:

... a fundamentally corrupted relationship between politics, the media, and the police. All these groups are supposed to serve the people. But too often they have been serving only themselves or each other. A light has been shone on the murky underworld of British public life. A world in which confidential information is for sale; in which journalists cross the line from public interest into vulgar voyeurism; and politicians, petrified of the power of the media, fail in their duty to ensure a free, accountable, plural press.

It is an excellent speech with a strong commitment to a free press, that gives everyone an insight into the significant work he has put in on this issue behind the scenes. It raises the opportunity to have a decent debate on what comes next after the flabby and flaccid Press Complaint Commission.

But so far, only a paving slab has been overturned. Observing all the stuff that is coming out is like watching the creepy crawlies under one slab. We now have an inquiry that will pull up the whole pavement. Whilst it will marginally improve things for the Liberal Democrats and for Ed Miliband, for senior politicians in both Labour and the Conservatives, this will be the expenses story all over again. So the loser will be the reputation of politics itself. Therefore, there is a danger even to those who come out of this inquiry squeaky clean.

Like the expenses scandal, politicians will be tempted down the route of some kind of half-cock, self-flagellation style IPSA idea, as a backlash reaction against the massive outcry. IPSA is system of financial scrutiny in Parliament which is almost unworkable and punishes all MPs.

Yesterday Labour's Tom Harris MP who has long campaigned on media issues summed it up perfectly in a tweet:

Journalists illegally tap people's phones. The response? Force MPs to publically record every meeting with media. Utterly. Bloody. Bonkers.

A strong and vibrant belief in politics may be what we sacrifice in the last roll of a dice of a retiring judge. This may end up as a backlash against politicians, triggered by an appalling act by people who should simply be developing a new and entirely different relationship with the police -- one which ends with a conviction.

Tags: Phone hacking scandal

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20 comments

Thu, 2011-07-14 15:29 — Neville Peters (not verified)

Public faith in politics? What public faith in politics? The Lib Dems have done more than most to destroy that.

Get real!

Thu, 2011-07-21 00:41 — Lisa Ansell (not verified)

Olly, writing two paragraphs about how stupid you think voters are, really wasn't the best way to open that. We know you hold us in contempt.
We didn't need murdoch gate to shatter public faith in politics, we have known the influence Murdoch had for years, and there has been no evidence of faith in politicians since the Cleggmania you helped whip up. And after that, am not sure you should be offering advice about restoring faith in politics. In one foul swoop, we have a two party system with both parties as bad as each other in every quantifiable way. Next you'll be saying voters are apathetic(clue they aren't- they just see politics as what it clearly is).

Fri, 2011-07-15 17:21 — maiko2011

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Sat, 2011-07-16 18:15 — trevor marwood (not verified)

"A fundimentally corrupt relationship between the enabling Orangfookers and the Children of Thatcher"

Thu, 2011-07-14 16:50 — Claire_M

Public faith in politics? Oh my sides that's a good one!

Thu, 2011-07-14 17:45 — alan (not verified)

The world is the way it is because
we are shallow greedy and cowardly
and the few who are not rule rape
and oppress

Thu, 2011-07-14 20:42 — Holton (not verified)

The top echelons of this country are rotten to the core.

Thu, 2011-07-14 20:52 — Mark (not verified)

The point I wished to make is regarding the sneering tone of this journalist regarding the ignorance of the great unwashed. How illiterate, how stupid, their knee jerking is exceeded only by their ability to scoff up the crap that Murdoch et al purvey. I would love to know, when was the last time you tried educating one of these people you sneer at so readily? One to One, where you were challenged on what *you* perceive as "the truth"? The silence will be deafening.

Second, regarding a comment earlier from someone called "Alan". The world is the way it is because

we are shallow greedy and cowardly

and the few who are not rule rape

and oppress"

To be clear, rapists and oppressors are *not* shallow, greedy and cowardly? Are you sure? By all means take umbrage, but for crying out loud, be sensible.

Sat, 2011-07-16 23:50 — pat (not verified)

olly when the lib dems are toast at the next election you might want to ponder on the name you give your party. It is neither liberal nor democratic to the majority of the public - your party has ensured that the welfare state set up by a liberal is dismantled by the votes of the liberals.

Thu, 2011-07-14 22:10 — thinkov

Clegg comes along to take advantage of a possible improvement in his standing-and quickly turns everybody against him simply by being around

He is poison

Thu, 2011-07-14 22:17 — Suzanne (not verified)

Really is pretty amusing to hear a Lib Dem lecture us about truth and the silly electorate not knowing or understanding detail.
The bare faced cheek of Lib Dems who continue to try to claim the high moral ground is pretty amazing to me. They are enabling the most aggressive, right wing government post war. The Lib Dems simply cannot with any credibility lecture anybody on morality for a very long time due to their complicity with this Tory party.

Fri, 2011-07-15 09:29 — Hal Berstram (not verified)

There might be some merit to this article if there had been any public faith in politics before the phone hacking scandal.

But there wasn't. It had been destroyed systematically by the Thatcher and Major Tories, Blair and Brown's New Labour, and finally - the icing on the cake - Nick Clegg's "Fib Dems", who delivered a "new politics" which was the same as the old politics, but worse. The Lib Dems are RESPONSIBLE for allowing this wretched ConDem coalition to continue.

Trust a casualty of the scandal? You can't kill what's dead already.

Fri, 2011-07-15 09:56 — mediumal57

Who is to blame for all this mis-representation, dis-information, half-truths and downright lies? Politicians and the media.

Nobody argues against the right of our Press and media to be free from State control. That's a dangerous undemocratic road to go down.

What the electorate however should demand is a media that doesn't make things up (putting it bluntly: lies to them). Lies unfortunately are all too easily spread about in the Westminister Village.

The trouble as I see it is that both politicians and their friends in our media are so consumed with trying to get one over on their opponents that they constantly step over the bounary into mere propaganda (mostly lies), as opposed to sticking with just explaning themselves properly.

Political debate (especially as it is conducted for the most part in the electronic media) is all about sound-bites and simplistic spin these days. i.e. treating the electorate like idiots. And of course when they are found out this just causes resentment and distrust. More corrosively is amplifies the cynicism, often found within our media towards politics and politicians.

Fri, 2011-07-15 12:55 — Lou (not verified)

Olly,

Public faith in politicians could hardly be any worse pre this crisis could it?

I'm sorry but not everything in life can be viewed through the rosy coloured spectacles or not so rosy coloured specs of a media management exercise .

I agree with Nick's speech content but there's no hiding the fact that til yesterday his silence has been deafening.

Now Vince is hailed as the great for his utterances on Murdoch and held up as some sort of Saint by the party but not one of you stood by him publicly over his comments at the time.....even though you all agreed and had been saying as much - well up to the point you got a taste of power.

The only backlash against politicians thus far is not coming from the public, but the bloody politicians on your benches with their childish chants of you did worse than us and their need to score political points because they, both parties in Govt, were seriously behind the public momentum on the hacking and the Labour leader was totally on the game and leading the way.

You're all in it together and for once politicians need to realise it's not about them, it's about the public, it's about the concentrated power of the press and it's about the corruption within the police that allowed this to go on unchecked.

None of the public are calling for freedom of the press to be curtailed just morally and ethically wrong practices to be curtailed and the bodies that are supposed to make sure that self regulation works do their damn job efficiently and properly.

Similarly, when a crime is clearly being committed, we expect the police and the law to work efficiently too and not find that police were subsidised financially by NI or given golden handcuff jobs by NI after their police employ ceased and above all we expect them to investigate criminality thoroughly, not consign it to evidence bags in bin liners gathering dust somewhere out of sight.

Sat, 2011-09-03 01:06 — Fraziel1

Public faith in politics? What faith? You must be on a different planet to think voters still have faith in them. I don't know much about you but as you are writing for the NS I suspect you are a typical leftie liberal living in an ivory tower who does not have a bloody clue how ordinary peiple think.

Politicians are self serving scum. i don't have a single friend that votes any more and with first past the post and the expenses scandal I have just voted in my last general election.

Fri, 2011-07-15 13:57 — Ringo (not verified)

Grender, you really are a patronising little weasel aren't you.

You're not as clever as you think you are and the public aren't as dumb as you'd like to think either.

Transparent bint.

Thu, 2011-07-14 13:28 — Freeman2

'People will, at the end of this, believe that all of them are as bad as each other, and be left with an impression of sleaze running through the media, police and politics.'

No, that is something we KNEW. This incident simply further underlines it.

Fri, 2011-07-15 14:17 — Freeman2

Well said Ringo. Perhaps the NS editor will take note.

Thu, 2011-07-14 13:55 — matthew fox (not verified)

Olly talks about the truth, when is she going to start writing it.

Her piece on Ed Miliband two weeks ago, will comeback to haunt her.

Fri, 2011-07-15 16:36 — Neil Craig

I have yet to see any "self flagellation" of our political class. Perhaps Ms Grender might like to start the process by saying something worse about herself than that she is a wholly corrupt liar, part of a partywhich cares absolutely nothing about its legal duty to the people. Aperson invlved in fraudulent conversion of 100s of billions of £s of our money; who is deliberately trying tom destroy our country's economy; and muder 10s of thousnads of our pensioners annually; that she is a racist tatalitarian pro-Nazi personally complicit in war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide, the sexual enslavement of Kosovan children and the dissection of living human beings.

When she has apologised for being worse than that then she may talk about "self flagellation". Meanwghile she can go back to her well paid useless "job", living high on our money.