Dr Fox & Mr Letwin

[tonywiltshire]

What happens to seemingly rational people, such as Dr Fox & Mr Letwin, when they are elected they then appear to behave in a most peculiar way?
Do we need a Minister for common sense?

[LazyGun]

@tonyw - no, because they would be suborned by the Westminster Hothouse. Its a closed shop consisting of unpaid interns, yes men, deference, expenses for pretty much all day to day living. You are insulated from the real world by layers of bureaucracy, part of a club that starts work middle of the day, and where you and others could be drunk to the point of coma and yet still shuffle through a lobby to support or deny an important piece of legislation.

Many go in with the best intentions, but I think the majority get corrupted, which is to the detriment of our democracy.

Good article on this very topic today in the Grauniad.....

http://www.guardian.c...dam-werritty-expenses

[VHG]

I think many MPs and MEPs, once elected, live in a strange cossetted world where they are shielded from "real life" so start to behave in strange and unusual ways.

I also think that many of these people are not as clever as they think they are (or would like us to believe), at least in terms of common sense.

I still cant believe that Fox did what he did and thought he could get away with it.

[jno]

Letwin appears to have been careless, because some of the letters he threw away should have been destroyed privately, but not otherwise stupidly. Fox's beviour was bizarre, though.

[I.Don No]

the 'power' that they inherit does seem to go to their heads doesn't it?

Tony, why would we want a minister for something that appears to have become obsolete?

[scotman]

The thing I don't understand about Dr Fox is that it appears no-one in the Cabinet or Conservative party seems to have noticed or cared how he was behaving. Also in his own department did none of his civil service officials ever say - "pardon me minister, who is this Mr Werrity? Why is he here?

[rov1100]

What makes many politicians go into the profession is a desire to change the world to their ideals. Unfortunately with the likes of Fox their views do not tally with the rest of us. With Britain in such a weak state they think by attaching themselves to the coat tails of someone big and powerful like the US they can get the job done.

[chirpychirpy]

bring back Lembit Opik !

[annadomino]

Yes, let's have John Cleese.

[Kromovaracun]

Personally, I'm of the view that an appeal to 'Common Sense' is pretty meaningless really as all it boils down to is an appeal to popular opinion.

But regarding the strange behaviour of elected politicians I think LG's point about isolation is an extremely valid one, and I also agree that plenty go into it with good intentions, but I think there's another point to be made too - you simply need to be a certain kind of person to want to go into politics. It's a job in which you are totally guaranteed to have someone, somewhere, hurling abuse at you all the time. Only certain kinds of people are okay with that. This was brilliantly satired during the first couple of series of The Thick of It - I doubt there are many careers which privately do quite so much to undermine faith in the general public (and your colleagues too) than politics.

[Quizmonster]

I think one of the classical writers in Rome's heyday first expressed the idea, but Billy Connolly said it quite effectively in much the same way as what follows...
"No one who puts himself forward for election should even be considered for the position."
Clueless, most of them.

[Gromit]

I cannot forgive John Leese for that annoying and stupid AA Insurance advert. If that is the best he can do these days, no wonder his wife divorced him.