John Bercow And The Den Of Thieves

As I reflect upon the appalling behavior of the political elite and the public's reaction to it, I am reminded of an interview from the 70's with a lady from a battered womens' refuge in Chiswick, West London.

The husband of the lady in question would beat the living daylights out of her every day on his return from work before calmly sitting down to his evening meal.

The reason this lady gave for not running away was that her father regularly beat her mother, so she presumed this kind behavior was normal in a marriage plus, she added, it happened so often she came to expect it.

The shocking part was that she claimed she still loved her husband and that he loved her.

The conclusion of this sad story was that the lady was given counselling and educated to the fact that there is no love in an abusive relationship, her husband had no respect for her, he beat her because he could and he knew he would get away with it.

With her newly acquired self respect she exposed her husband to the media, she then had him prosecuted and thrown in the slammer.

The happy conclusion to this sad story was that the lady met up with a new partner and was in the process of a divorce with a plan to remarry.

Whenever I read about the behavior of our political elite my mind goes back to that interview all those years ago. Although there is no violence involved, the relationship between politicians and those they govern is, none the less, an abusive one but without the happy ending.

Politicians from both Houses of Parliament were helping themselves to shed loads of taxpayers money by exploiting an expenses system that was so corrupt it would make an African dictator blush. The public knew their representatives were cheating but were blissfully unaware of the extent of it.

When the Honourable Members of the House of Commons fought tooth and nail against a Freedom Of Information request to make their expense claims public, the peoples suspicions were aroused.

This suppression of transparency was successful and the public would have been none the wiser but for a whistleblower who made the information available to the Daily Telegraph who subsequently published it.

The reaction was volcanic, the public were appalled by the scale of the thievery but more importantly by the utter contempt and disrespect that these venal low life's had for the people they claimed to be representing.

Members from all parties were involved including millionaires and senior Members of the government.

The complete sorry details are too numerous to list here but they are available elsewhere on the Internet. The most notorious claims such duck houses and moat clearing have now entered into British political folklore.

MP's were indignant that they were exposed and went into a damage limitation mode as a matter of urgency. Some of the thieves were prosecuted and served time in the slammer, others lost their seats in the next election but by far the majority got away with it unpunished and with their loot intact.

To the disgust of these so called Honourable Members the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority was set up to monitor their activities and end the abuses. There's been a war of attrition between them ever since.

Despite the efforts of IPSA, MP's are still finding ways to help themselves to taxpayers money.

Recently there was the hard left champion of the poor and downtrodden, Ms Linda Riordan, renting out her taxpayer funded house to a fellow socialist, who then charged that rent to the taxpayer. Riordan then billed the taxpayer again for accommodation for herself. She makes some money and taxpayer gets screwed. As it turns out there were several other MP's pulling the same scam.

The public were outraged at this scam but only for the duration of the 24 hour news cycle, nothing surprises them anymore, like the battered lady at the beginning of the essay, the people now treat this disgraceful behavior as normal, they have come to expect it.

On the day that the convicted thief and career socialist Margaret Moran was spared prison on the grounds of her depression, (depression at getting caught no doubt), it was announced that the Speaker of the House, a tax cheat himself, John Bercow, has been enlisted by MP's to rig the makeup of IPSA.

Four independent members of IPSA have resigned as a result of this attempt at rigging. There can only be one reason for this, MP's do not like public scrutiny of their shenanigans and would like to get back to fleecing the taxpayer unobserved.

The reputation of politicians has never been lower but with tribal voting and a lack of scrutiny by the majority of the media they are safe in the knowledge that they have a taxpayer funded job for life, a copper bottomed pension and a lucrative sinecure on retirement.

Like the battered lady from the refuge, the people will continue to vote for the venal, self centered dregs of society until they are counselled and educated to regain their dignity and self respect.

They can then file for divorce, kick the villains out and find new partners who have their interests in mind.