MPs Expenses

I have been asking myself why it is I find it difficult to get hot under the collar about all that is going on. After all, some pretty atrocious things have come to our attention. No denying that.

But  I have had nagging questions - beginning with the fact that the allegations have been so indiscriminate, without regard to personal situations. Were has been the sense of justice?

Then the cynical part of me notes that this will have done wonders for the Daily Telegraph circulation figures, and perhaps quite a lot for its preferred political party. Do I want important institutions to be victims of circulation wars with Rupert Murdoch or straight politics?

But even this leaves me unsatisfied.

But now I begin to notice how obsessed we are with money. This seems to be all about money. Now money of  course is very important. It gives power, a certain sort of freedom. And it provides a useful tool to measure right and wrong (and some have been found wanting, very wanting.)

But where is our judgement when more important issues are at stake. We are worried about MPs moats - but not so bothered about MPs mistresses! Money says that moats matters, but the latter is to do with one's personal life. But money is pretty private - normally at least. 

We see the folly of the public / private distinction.

Money means that we are worried about the waste of resources on mortgage interest, when that same money could have gone on the NHS. Quite so, but is it not much more serious that we risk wasting so much that we value as we allow freedoms such as Habeas Corpus to be whittled away. Why are we not as incensed about that? But then, money does not find that so objectionable.

So there we have it. Money is judge and king. (And its idols are made of plastic and paper with pretty pictures on them.)

There is though a debate to be had. Awful things have happened. But I would rather not bow at the altar of money. Christians have a different God - the one we meet in the face of Christ. I would like to know which way his eyes are looking. I would like to know where his anger and his mercy are pointed.

Christ has the habit of looking at us that we might look at one another. He leads us closer to one another, he opens our eyes to our responsibilities. From the Cross he said to John, 'Behold your mother'. It is our relationships, not money, that need to define what is right and wrong.

Here we begin to get nearer the heart of this affair. Our eyes have been opened to how out of touch government can be with the individual. There is the person quoted in the Times Online:“After I have paid my bills I have nothing. I can't afford to buy my TV licence. The people at the social tell us that teabags are luxuries and then you hear what the MPs spend their money on..." (quoted in Magnus Linklater's column May 20 2009).

This then is not really about expenses. They are a symptom. This is about the nature of our government, of our democracy. This is a cry for MPs who really are 'from the people'. Do we have echoes here of the great reforms of the last two centuries that gave the vote to all? Is there a sense that that vote has been taken away as Parliament has been cocooned from daily life? Eyes have been opened, forced open by the recession and the banking scandals?

If this leads to another Great Reform Act it will have been a blessing in disguise. The earlier reforms perhaps never challenged the privileges of those with power. Perhaps this really can be a new revolution? This I think is the real debate.