Terry Waite: "Politicians are reaping what they sow"

30/06/2008

 During the past few weeks the public have been subject to a stream of political memoirs which have delighted the press. Astute journalists have been able to comb the pages of these offerings and highlight the passages which criticize the behaviour of their former colleagues or acquaintances.

 

Of course many readers love this sort of thing and can’t get enough of it, but I wonder if I am in the minority in finding the whole business distasteful in the extreme?

 

I imagine that there is a certain degree of hypocrisy in most of us as it’s quite understandable to want others to see us in the best possible light. It’s another matter altogether, once one is moving out of public office, to engage in what amounts to destructive gossip - presumably to enhance one’s own status at the expense of others and, of course, to sell books.

 

Admittedly in a rapidly changing world Britain is a complex country to govern. At one time politicians had a greater control over events than they have today - simply because no longer do we, as a country call, so many shots. The current mortgage crisis demonstrates clearly how actions taken by banks beyond these shores have had a radical and disturbing effect on the people of this country. Globalization will no doubt increasingly impinge on us in the days which lie ahead.

 

That said, despite their lack of control, our political leaders do seem to lack dignity and wisdom and the behaviour of some of them in recent years has done nothing to improve the situation.

 

Would it be asking too much for all who have held ministerial office to be barred from publishing their memoirs for, let us say, four years after they have left office? I think it might be as there would be those who would claim that such a ban would prevent the public from knowing the truth.

 

Whether the truth has been told in the memoirs is another question altogether. One might also ask that politicians should also be barred for a period of time from entering into the employ of companies with whom they have had an involvement during their time in office. Again, I don’t imagine that such a proposal would stand a chance in today’s world but I have no doubt that it is issues such as these that contribute to the general cynicism about politicians and political affairs.

 

It’s possible that, at the moment, politicians are reaping the harvest of seeds sown several years ago when the Prime Minister of the day simply refused to hear the voice of so many ordinary voters who urged the government not to go to war in Iraq.

 

Confidence in politicians has never been high, but at that point it dropped several notches. Then, as the atrocities committed (mainly by American troops) came to light, it seemed as though our Government was not really taking this matter seriously and was giving a “nod and a wink” to extraordinary rendition and other horrors. That is how it seemed to many and politicians would do well to remember that, in politics, perception is reality.

 

As I implied earlier, a certain degree of duplicity and sleight of hand has always been present in politics and I would be a fraud to say that I was squeaky clean. That said, politicians have only themselves to blame for the fact that voters turn out in such small numbers and become disillusioned.

 

I regret all this very much for we really need and deserve a healthy political life in this country. At the moment I doubt that we have it.