In defence of MPs…
I never thought I’d find myself writing in defence of MPs…hang on, this is beginning to feel a bit familiar.
The rather splendid Tactical Voting blog from Jeff has a recent posting on MPs (as recommended by today’s Scottish Blogging Roundup) about MPs. The post says…
“Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 600 employees and has the following statistics?
- 29 have been accused of spouse abuse
- 7 have been arrested for fraud
- 19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
- 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
- 3 have done time for assault
- 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
- 4 have been arrested on drug-related charges
- 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
- 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
- 84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year
Which organization is this?
It's the 635 members of the House of Commons, the same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.”
Truly shocking…and utter bollocks.
I first remember seeing this list a couple of years ago in an email and had the normal reaction which is a combination of ‘typical, knew it etc etc’. Then on second glance I thought something didn’t fit.
“635 members of the House of Commons”
There are 646 members of the House of Commons. So where has this list come from? 635 is the key. The US Congress has 535 members and the US Senate has 100 Senators – 635.
Is US politics then so broken that this list is accurate? Again, its bollocks.
Snopes, a website dedicated to debunking urban myths, has the background to the list. Apparently it originates from an American Libertarian website from 1998. As Snopes observes the information isn`t independently verifiable and names no individuals, to avoid a lawsuit no doubt,
Our political and media culture tells us that all politicians are potentially dodgy characters which is why we are so quick to believe this sort of list. The truth is that the vast overwhelming majority of politicians are decent law-abiding people.
However like every other profession there are those who let not just themselves down but also their entire sphere. Which is perhaps what I find most aggravating about the ongoing Wendy Alexander saga is the damage it does to all of politics.
Alexander getting dodgy donations and being investigated for fraud in relation to the Scottish Industry Forum only adds fuel that all of politics operates on her potentially illegal standards.
What this tells me is that collectively we’ve got to give our politicians a bit of a break and a fairer view, but if one of our politicians (like Alexander is at the momebt) is involved in a breach of the law they’ve got to take responsibility for their actions.
“Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 600 employees and has the following statistics?
- 29 have been accused of spouse abuse
- 7 have been arrested for fraud
- 19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
- 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
- 3 have done time for assault
- 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
- 4 have been arrested on drug-related charges
- 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
- 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
- 84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year
Which organization is this?
It's the 635 members of the House of Commons, the same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.”
Truly shocking…and utter bollocks.
I first remember seeing this list a couple of years ago in an email and had the normal reaction which is a combination of ‘typical, knew it etc etc’. Then on second glance I thought something didn’t fit.
“635 members of the House of Commons”
There are 646 members of the House of Commons. So where has this list come from? 635 is the key. The US Congress has 535 members and the US Senate has 100 Senators – 635.Is US politics then so broken that this list is accurate? Again, its bollocks.
Snopes, a website dedicated to debunking urban myths, has the background to the list. Apparently it originates from an American Libertarian website from 1998. As Snopes observes the information isn`t independently verifiable and names no individuals, to avoid a lawsuit no doubt,
Our political and media culture tells us that all politicians are potentially dodgy characters which is why we are so quick to believe this sort of list. The truth is that the vast overwhelming majority of politicians are decent law-abiding people.
However like every other profession there are those who let not just themselves down but also their entire sphere. Which is perhaps what I find most aggravating about the ongoing Wendy Alexander saga is the damage it does to all of politics.
Alexander getting dodgy donations and being investigated for fraud in relation to the Scottish Industry Forum only adds fuel that all of politics operates on her potentially illegal standards.
What this tells me is that collectively we’ve got to give our politicians a bit of a break and a fairer view, but if one of our politicians (like Alexander is at the momebt) is involved in a breach of the law they’ve got to take responsibility for their actions.
2 viewpoints:
Yep, I hold my hands up, it seems i'm as criminal as the rest of them as I got that one a bit wrong.
I lazily cut-and-pasted an email I received and passed it off as hard fact.
To be fair, that's about as much research as a Scotsman journalist does these days....!
Yes, but when it comes to delusion you can't beat them.
Post a Comment