HOW often do we hear that the House of Commons is our main defender of democracy? What a total crock.
MPs have just voted to allow all complaints against them, including abuses of expenses, to be kept secret. Gadzooks, you hear me cry.
Even the Victorians considered institutional secrecy an abomination. They passed the Public Record Office Act declaring such openness crucial to democracy.
Since then the so-called defenders of our rights have time after time made the rules to exempt themselves from scrutiny because their peccadillos and outright criminality would land any other normal person in jail.
It’s a case of don’t do as do, do as I say. Some democracy, some defenders!
The words of George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) spring to mind: “Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”
Michael Hawkins, Langley Park.
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