28.08.1997

Moral vetting

In an attempt to insulate the Scottish parliament from the stench of sleaze and graft that wafts around the corridors of Westminster and many a local council chamber, Scotland Forward and the Labour Party are simultaneously myth-making and fighting a lost cause.

Paolo Vestri, national organiser of Scotland Forward, claims that with PR and 50:50 female representation there will be no fear of corruption in the new parliament. Well, there are countless examples to disprove his point on PR: Ireland and Italy, to name two with a system of PR where corruption in government has been endemic. Apparently the election of more women “can ensure that it will operate in a less confrontational way” - at least according to Vestri.

The Labour Party meanwhile has promised a new vetting procedure for all its prospective parliamentary candidates to a Scottish parliament. It intends to set up a star chamber of various worthies (Sir Gavin Laird has been mentioned!) who will interrogate all potential candidates as to their moral worthiness to represent the people.

You can bet this vetting committee will not restrict its attentions to a candidate’s sleaze ratings but will also examine the political loyalty to the latest line coming from Kier Hardie House, Millbank Tower - or Mandelson’s mobile.

The most foolproof way to prevent politicians from furthering their own career or feathering their own nest is to pay them the average wage of the people they represent and to ensure that they are accountable to and recallable by those people. Anything else is leaving such representatives, no matter how well meaning, to the lure of bourgeois life’s perks and privileges. Representing people, whether politically or in a trade union, should be seen as an honour and a responsibility, not the conveyor belt to feed in the trough for personal gain.

Andy McLean