Members stuck in the lobby mire20: 00 21/03/2010, Peter Preston, comment, comment is free, conservatives, labor, expenses of members of Parliament, po

Members stuck in the lobby mire20: 00 21/03/2010, Peter Preston, comment, comment is free, conservatives, labor, expenses of members of Parliament, politics, the tutor, news, United Kingdom Guardian Unlimited

It is 16 years since the parliamentary cash for questions "scandal, but the standards in public life is still insufficient

It is 16 years since The Guardian discovered cash for questions and a group of Conservative MPs ready to jump in demand pressure, 16 years after biting a Sunday Times found too many "members of honor of being" willing to put your hands in the dough, 16 years since a more embattled John established the Committee on Standards in Public Life for our democracy to something purer, more orderly. And here we go again. Another Sting: another stink.

Try to examine exercise 4/Sunday Channel Times yesterday in the kindly light. Not all deputies approached by a false PR company took the bait. Nobody did anything illegal. Some responses were more pathetic than threatening. Margaret Moran - to go after the debacle of the costs - offered to call a band of "girls" for Members to promote an adequate cause. Geoff Hoon weakly confessed: "I have two kids in college, so I have to get a job."

The name on the top of this list of shit, Stephen Byers, made an ass of himself: "I'm like a rental car - at £ 5,000 per day." Perhaps Lord Adonis push things go easy on National Express are just more promotional blah - but their claims there, filmed and recorded before being quickly removed, should be investigated.

In a sense, revealed the details are less important than the general impression, confirmed. Sixteen years ago, it was Conservative MPs who were stuck in the mud of lobbying. Now is the work of parliament, former ministers and apparently sensitive to boot. What the hell is Patricia Hewitt, a former warrior of Age Concern, the former head of the National Council for Civil Liberties that became Liberty, holding meetings with public relations firms is, let alone offering to help fix this or what?

Cash for Questions of 1994 was a savage blow to voters who hold the Parliament in the unconditional estimates. The chaos of 2009 brought charges of Commons and Lords lower low. The wringing consternation from spells continuing. Drifts funding of political parties in a Sargasso Sea somewhere between Unite Beach and the Cape of Good Ashcroft. Add Byers and Cooperation in total despair.

What happened to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, you ask? When, with 11 reports later polished, made all the purity go? In fact, there is a reasonable story to tell on behalf of the committee. There would be an Electoral Commission, stronger rules on lobbyists or better level in many areas without it. You may use a checklist to ensure that expenditure schemes in the next Parliament will not ooze away. You can expect anything better than settling for self-service regulation. You can expect the prime minister did not conceal his colleagues in a jam.

But there is an unanswered question, a problem highlighted smelly itchy. Where - after all those 16 years - are those of the Commission seven principles of public life, the basis that Lord Nolan first carved? Selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership? Ideas and ideals, not just words. And there, in its latest annual report, the Committee seems to shrug Sisyphus exhaustion writing.

"Codes of Practice achieve very little if not backed by effective management," he says. Expanding the book of rules for dealing with each new scandal is not a sustainable approach. We must ensure that the seven principles "are rooted in the culture of our public service institutions and translated into personal values, reinforced in the daily behavior of the systems and processes."

Remember that today as Brown and Cameron are competing to offer more rules and more. Remember in the wilderness of the dubious records and not the debate Sun "How to" is not a quick fix, no more than a letter from the Pope. We will not get better - unless we get better. We're not going to start believing again - unless we see something worth believing in.

The costs of Members'
Work
Conservatives
Peter Preston


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