OPINION: Are politics and honesty mutually exclusive?

As every child in the United States will tell you, the first American president was a man of great moral integrity, incapable of telling a lie. As the story goes, George Washington once cut down his father’s cherry tree. Upon finding the tree reduced to firewood, Washington’s father asked him if he knew who had committed such an act. His response of “I cannot tell a lie” is well known in American folklore.

BY SEAN ASHFORD

This is obviously a fable, but it must be looked at as having double significance today. Politicians seem to have lost the ability to take a moral approach to decision making, and the result has been a series of broken promises, lies and scandal.

Before the election, every Liberal Democrat candidate signed a pledge promising to oppose tuition fee increases and to fight for the right of every student. It cannot be a case of political reinterpretation. Nick Clegg himself said “Our message to students is clear: we remain the only party that believes fees are unfair, and the only party with a plan to get rid of them for good; we’ve developed a plan to phase out tuition fees over the course of the next six years, to ensure this vital policy is affordable even at this time of economic crisis.”

It now seems that a cornerstone of Lib Dem policy has been abandoned, cast aside due to the allure of power. But the question I ask is not whether this is right or not, I ask what standards should we hold our politicians to? Do we expect too much, or indeed too little of them?

It appears now to be an acceptable thing for politicians to behave in an unjust and immoral manner. Thinking back to the expenses scandal, so many politicians were involved in abusing the position of power that we the people had granted to them. Whilst there was public outcry, this was only due to the clear abuse of money. Money, it seems, is the only thing that can motivate us enough to take a stand against the failings of politicians. The mutilation of public services, of education, justice and other areas appears to be so much less of an issue because it involves the abuse of integrity, not money.

This is not a modern problem. It affects all countries and it has done for many years now. In America, from Watergate to Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” speech, and even closer to home with Gerry Adams’ declaration that “The day the IRA gives up its weapons is the day I resign from politics”, politicians find it acceptable to misrepresent and distort for the purpose of garnering support from the duped masses.

Perhaps we need not look at the politicians who are acting dishonestly but instead create a new ethos in our society, one which will not sit back and accept the deceit but instead hold politicians to account. Whether or not a constitutional overhaul is required, I am unsure. We cannot, however, let this situation become even worse. It will only breed voter apathy which is a much greater danger altogether.