I've always hated the Tories and New Labour because they've never pretended to care for the citizens they wish to govern. Instead, they've seen the state as something to capture for their own and their friends' interests. This is the 'our turn to eat' syndrome (as invented in Kenya).
The weekend's story about Stephen Byers MP ('I'm a cab for hire), Geoff Hoon (wanted 'something that frankly makes money'), Patricia Hewitt ( for a fee of £3,000 a day, she could help "a client who needs a particular regulation removed, then we can often package that up") and others is utterly symptomatic of this attitude. For people like him, a period as government minister isn't the pinnacle of a life devoted to serving the public: it's a period of political glory which leads on to wealth and comfort obtained by using the contacts made in the service of whichever corporation buys his time. Ex-soldiers and defence ministers work for arms manufacturers, ministers for health work for private health companies, treasury officials go to the City, all betraying their beliefs (if they're Labour).
There's no sense that Byers has any political principles which might restrain him - it's all about the money (£3000-£5000 per day, he says).
What really shocked me, and which summed up the ideological vacuity of New Labour, was Byers' use of pronouns. He told the undercover reporter that he'd lobbied ministers to save millions of pounds for National Express railways and helped Tesco weaken food labelling laws. All the way through, he used 'we'. Not referring to the government of which he was a minister, nor to the party he represents as a member of parliament, nor to the people he claims to represent. No. To this man, elected by the citizens and paid by us, 'we' referred to these corporations.
That is a resigning matter.
This is the kind of thing that makes me a socialist. And keeps me away from elected office.
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