Why don't you get a job?

The recent furore at News International which has damaged the media,police and the UK government,sees the UK getting more and more tainted by the corruption and generally crooked brush that was usually reserved for 'tin pot' Central African dictatorships of yesteryear.

The thing is though,that this is only the latest in a long series of scandals and body blows that have affected nearly every large national institution in recent years.
The bank bosses were exposed in 2008 as greedy incompetents,and as for both Houses of Parliament,I hardly have to explain about the recent expenses fraud do I?

As Britons,we've always liked to see someone at the head of society that we could look upwards with a little respect.No,I'm not talking about vacuous celebs or moronic football players.

But have the latest developments in Westminster been that very different than in the past? Let's go back a few hundred years to the period 1790-1820.Back then in a survey of 658 MPs,50 admitted having illegitimate children,220 were financially ruined,35 died in exile abroad due to having lost everything,5 were expelled for fraud.At least 19 committed suicide and 6 went mad...Makes our parliament seem quite law abiding and normal really doesn't it?

The thing that really gets me angry though about our modern day representatives in Westminster (and come to think of it the whole government)is the fact that most of them have never done anything.
What I mean is they've never held proper jobs,or served in the Armed Forces,or learned how businesses are run.Few have been tested in the fires of conflict or even commerce.Their whole adult and even adolescent lives have been devoted to the spin of politics,unlike previous folk such as Denis Healey,Michael Heseltine,Ernie Bevin and Willie Whitelaw of former generations.

They have studied polls and focus groups,TV interviewing techniques and speech writing,but know nothing about what most of us would call real life.Surely one of their many advisers must sit down at the end of the day and think " Well you've learnt how to deflect a difficult question,but if you could really know how it feels to be a typical person in today's Britain,more people would vote for you and not think of you as being a sanctimonious and aloof idiot who's fooling no one"

When David Cameron tells us that he is taking one of his holidays in the UK,are we meant to feel grateful? He tells us that "we are all in this together" and that he "feels the pinch too"

Surely his 2 weeks are not even remotely in line as the rest of us? I don't know about you,but having an estimated personal fortune of £30 million pounds to fall back on,must be a great comfort when travelling out to Spain for a week on Ryan Air? I'm sure if I was him,I would be able to manage putting up with something a lot worse (such as having to attend the Tory conference for example)knowing that after my own personal hell of having to associate with the plebs was over,I could go back to Chateau Lafite and Oysters for breakfast.....