And so indeed it should. Which is why you won't find me calling a decent and honest politician like Gordon Brown a weirdo just because he chews his fingernails.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Loyalty still counts for something
Although Tory MP Derek Conway is clearly in the wrong over his generous taxpayer-funded payments to a family member - he is by no means the only MP who does this by the way - I have to admire Iain Dale for his refusal to join the braying pack demanding his instant hanging, drawing and quartering. Conway is a friend of Iain's and he says loyalty should still count for something.
And so indeed it should. Which is why you won't find me calling a decent and honest politician like Gordon Brown a weirdo just because he chews his fingernails.
And so indeed it should. Which is why you won't find me calling a decent and honest politician like Gordon Brown a weirdo just because he chews his fingernails.
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6 comments:
So it boils down to nobody will slag politicans who have roughly similar political ideas to their own but will happily criticise members of other parties.
And so it goes on.
Of course lots of MPs pay their family members, but under normal circumstances the family member actually does some work for the MP - which does not appear to be the case with Mr Conway.
Ourman
Just scroll down a bit to the post entitled "No to Milburn, no to electoral reform" and you will see that I am perfectly prepared to criticise my own side when necessary. What I will not do however is join in with personal attacks on people who I believe to be decent human beings, which is exactly the position Iain is taking with Derek Conway.
I think it is right to stand up for your buddies. Mind you the bigger tory scandal is that some tory mp has been arrested for assualting some people. Why is it Hain had to resign when he was arrested but the tories do not.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/01/29/tory-mp-nigel-waterson-in-assault-probe-89520-20302315/
It is funny reading the tory's website he is obssessed with old people, member of all the charities on the issue, (which is good), and he is OAp minister in the tories. Guess where he is MP for Eastbourne. I sahould not make jokes about this as it is a serious issue but is funny someone interested in old people would be a MP for the eastbourne.
I'm not sure that link proves anything Paul although it's Dale who is the most blatant in this.
Setting yourself up as a political pundit and then refusing to criticise a politician on the take "because he's my friend" is frankly pathetic. Where does it end?
Mostly though the "so it goes on" is aimed at this big daft game that is British poltics. Who's on the make? Whose a wierdo? Whose taking money from where?
One side calls the other side names and then they retaliate.
And political blogging, having gone from a decent exchange of views in the early days has gone the same way (you deserve credit for doing it less than most)
Is this what we are reduced to in these days when there's a cigarette paper between the policies of Labour and Conservative?
Where did the passion and the conviction go? Where did the desire to make genuine improvement to people's lives? Does anyone care about issues?
It appears to be all squabbling and neither side can even start to be objective in the discussions.
Their side is always seen as guilty and your own side whiter than whiter.
What Dale wrote would have been fine if he'd said: he's my friend, a good man, but he made a mistake and it was wrong.
He could then have gone on and on as he liked about how the man is a Saint.
As it is, it didn't come across as loyal to the MP involved but loyal to the Tory party.
As I said, with so little between then, it's just down to gangs and subsequently appears increasingly childish.
My apologies because the last comment wasn't meant as a dig at you - just boredom at the currect state of politics and political blogging.
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