Politicians - should they be paragons of virtue?

[Oneeyedvic]

Should politicinas be paragons of virtue or should they be 'just like the rest of us' and human.

 

As an example if they have an affair - is this really an issue (after all a high percentage of the country do asmit to it) or should they be above it all and if they are caught out immeadiately resign.

 

What about if they break the law - eg taking money off people to influence policy - most people would agree this is wrong - but what about a speeding offense.

 

Does it actually matter if they have said that speeding is bad and then get caught? as opposed to not having said anything about it?

 

Essentially, should MPs be treated as human beings and their behaviour normal, or should they be something to look up to and emulate.

[El D]

Its a very difficult discussion really - there is no doubt that politicians are not paragons of virtue, they are human and they do, unwittingly or wilfully break laws. I cannot stand hypocrites and to have someone stand there and basically reiterate 'do as i say not as i do' is annoying. But it is basically completely very unrealistic to think that politicians are cut from a different cloth to the rest of us. Perhaps incidents where their powers were abused, as opposed to 'ordinary' crimes, should be the benchmark for mud slinging and general degradation.

[Hgrove]

I have always thought that things like extra marital affairs should not matter one bit.  Years ago there was a Tory politician who had an affair and his father in law was interviewed and said that as he had betrayed his wife, so he would betray his country, thereby finishing his career (I think he opened a shop afterwards).  Much as I disliked the politicial (can't remember his name although I remember his face) I thought the father in law was completely ott.  Think of Mitterrand.  When asked if he had a love child, he answered: yes. so what?  The French were not in the least bit shocked.

[Flanker8]

Yep, couldn't agree more - playing away from home should not matter one jot so long as it doesn't affect the way they conduct their job: if they abuse their position in furtherance of the dalliance (the train ticket for instance, or the fast tracked visa application), then that does matter - yes, I know both are trivial compared to what some policticians have done, from all parties, but that is not really relevent: the relevance is he abused his power.

 

He is a single man, and yes you could question his morals for entering into an affair with a married woman, but the fact of the matter is he did not commit a crime, and therefore the affair itself has sweet FA to do with us.

 

Take the Clinton thing (who I thought was a good president): I really didn't give a tinker's cuss that he received a blowie - in fact, the 'lad' in me thought good for you - but, crucially, he lied to the American people about it: but, again, I really don't think it was any of their business in the first place (and as a complete tangent to the question in hand, what sort of sicko keeps a frock with an emission on it???).

[woofgang]

I don't have a problem with private indiscretions, but don't think that someone who has had an affair with another man's wife (or another woman's husband) can be described as "someone of the highest integrity"

Actually I don't have a particular problem with the speeding up (not reversing decision on) a visa and I bet this is not the only time that it, or something similar, has happened  in all political parties. Lying about it...that's different

[jimmer]

They should not be treated differently than the rest of us but as with the rest of us they have RULES as well as laws to obey that effect their ability to do their job. Say i'm a salesman and i relax at night with a spliff. If i carry out my job properly is it really any of my employer's business? Now, if i'm a train driver and i smoke to relax i could get tested for drugs and get the sack even if i smoked the spliff at the start of a three week holiday so it wouldn't effect my work. The difference is that as a train driver i would know that it was part of my terms and conditions that i could get tested.

David Blunkett resigned because his position was untenable and not because he did anything wrong per se. With an election looming he would have been a liability to the labour party particularly in the tricky area of imigration. He also lost a lot of friends on the back benches through the comments attributed to him in his biography, and in politics, as you lose support you lose power.

 

jim

[Peter Pedant]

No I dont think you can take a line against immigrants and then say basically oh no, not if she is a nanny of mine.

[Romeo]

It's certainly not for ME to judge anyone on having an affair, I'd be a hypocrite if I did.  So I won't judge politicians on THAT score.  Politicians should, however, be law-abiding, i.e. not criminals.

[incuriam]

MPs, especially MPs in power, ought to be respectable. Whether it's the decision to lead a country into conflict or to bring in legislation that will affect how our children are cared for by an increasingly careless society, we need to be able to trust the people who have been charged with this responsibility.

 

Most importantly, these people work for us. We pay their wages. If you were to employ an au pair, and had a choice between two, would go for the bright liar who has a history of speeding fines and readily admits she's prone to sleeping with married men, or would you go for the responsible, boring one -- the one you could trust to drive your car?

[Pinotage]

I think we expect too much of politicians, but Blunkets' affair is not the issue, it was misusing his position to give favourable treatment to his mistress - speeding visa applications and giving free govt (i.e. your & my money) travel.

Some years ago a friend in BT was given a travel warrant to buy a rail ticket, on the day itself he got given a lift in someones car and he gave his ticket to his daughter. A ticket inspector on the train queried whether she worked for BT and called the police. My mate was prosecuted for fraud. He didn't get the option to pay the cost of the ticket.