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The Scrabble for Money - by John Redwood MP
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(Photo: Valeriy Klamm)
We are witnessing the death throes of Tony Blair, as the followers of Gordon circle and wound, without being able to deliver the killer blow quickly. We are awaiting the outcome of a police investigation into party funding, as they follow the questions raised about cash for peerages. People need to know where they stand, who is going to govern them, what the attitude of the new regime is going to be. Instead the nation has to watch, fascinated and repelled, as the feuds continue. I am so fed up with the way party politics work I have just completed a book entitled “I want to make a difference, but I don’t like politics”. Don’t get me wrong. I love my job representing the people of Wokingham, and I hold it a great honour to be able to speak and debate in Westminster. This is my new crusade! What I can’t stand is big money political parties, as Labour, Lib Dems and Conservatives scrabble around for entrepreneurs and companies to keep them in the millions they think they need to do their job. So many of the apparent compromises, hypocrisy and double speak seems to come from parties who claim one thing, but whose backers want something else or stand for something else. In the last few years we have seen Bernie Ecclestone get his money back from Labour, as the government assured us his donation had nothing to do with exempting Formula One from the smoking advertising ban; we have heard the Prime Minister say there is nothing wrong with a Minister like Lord Sainsbury giving large sums to the ruling party whilst being in office; and we have many denials that anyone has ever bought a peerage or knighthood. There have been many scandals and question marks over movements of money, and some very famous mortgages and loans. The problem largely stems from the way so many in politics today think they should do the job. The rightly think they need to know what the public thinks about things. Any good MP who reads his letters and emails, holds regular surgeries, and goes out and about to meet people could tell them that. Instead they spend fortunes on polling and focus group research. Often the polling or focus group distorts what people think or mean. You can to some extent generate the answer you want by the way you ask the question. They then spend another small fortune on “experts” to construct a message, to draft and design the literature and media performances, and on advertising to get the message out. No wonder people are so suspicious of what they are being told. The political parties first ask the audience – at great cost – and then tell the audience what they have told the politicians – at great gloss. What’s the point of that? What people want to hear is what political parties and individual politicians make of the problems the public reports to them, and what they are going to do about it. If the politicians concerned are in government, they should remember actions speak louder than words, and if the words and the actions do not say the same thing, people are canny enough to believe the actions! Much more communication can happen free of charge to the political parties. Newspapers and TV channels will give politicians space and time if they have something useful to say. The three largest parties all have sufficient MPs to field spokespeople on every issue. Their salaries are all paid by the taxpayer, and communication should be an important part of the job. It’s high time the main parties accepted that it is too difficult chasing big money from business donors, and self defeating to spend it on professional polling and message crafting which the public increasingly distrusts. Let’s instead have MPs who can listen, think and speak – that’s what I thought we were all paid for. Instead some of the parties some of the time seem to think the only good MP is a quiet MP – or one who mouths the platitudes the ad men have come up with. Written by John Redwood, who has a regular column in the Reading Evening Business Post. This article was published with prior consent from John Redwood's Office. The article was originally published in the Readin Evening Business Post. |
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