By©Muhammad Haque
1450 Hrs GMT
London
Saturday 21 June 2008
It is not ever possible to get the guilty to show gratitude to their prosecutor!
Likewise, it is never the case that the exposure or acton on a wrongdoing of a fraudulent corrupt politician will be followed by ‘the exposed’ being thankful to their electorate who demand answers for the politicians' failures.
When it comes to the politicians’ getting caught at it - which has begun to happen with an almost healthy frequency [it should happen more, much more often], the spectacle is a memorable one.
For it is when a politician gets caught at it that it [the politico] shows any manners at all!
It becomes almost courteous and begins to recover from the amnesia that affects it, grips it within minutes of being declared ‘elected’!
Within seconds, the ‘elected’ leaves the mortal, ordinary world and enters the sphere of the unordinary. Almost the sphere of the dead.
It does not recognise the surrounding any more.
And to the people in the ‘vicinity’ it behaves as if the people don’t exist....
Amnesia occurs about who made it ‘elected’ in the first place...Amnesia takes over about the entire environment....
It is very rarely that the public get the chance to see just what their elected politicos get up to...
When the opportunity comes, the exhibit is too embarrassing, too shameful...
[To be continued]
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Who's miserable now? 'I'm sorry,' says minister who told credit crunch Britons to cheer up
By JAMES CHAPMAN
Last updated at 12:24 AM on 21st June 2008
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Transport Minister Tom Harris has told families across Britain to stop being so miserable
A Labour minister who demanded to know why Britons were 'so bloody miserable' felt the force of public outrage yesterday over the soaring cost of living.
Tom Harris took to the airwaves to apologise if he had caused offence when he insisted that the public had 'never been so wealthy' despite the credit crunch hitting the economy.
The bike-riding Transport Minister claimed he had been trying to start a debate about why people found it hard to find 'contentment when we have so much material wealth'.
He insisted: 'I absolutely was not telling people to cheer up' - but admitted that 'timing isn't my strong point'.
However, his explanation for his remarks - which were revealed in yesterday's Daily Mail - appeared to cut little ice with viewers and listeners.
Mr Harris was harangued by scores for his 'arrogant' approach at a time when families are struggling with rising food and fuel costs, falling house prices and below-inflation pay rises.
Several complained that a minister earning £92,100 a year and claiming more than £150,000 in expenses was ill-placed to lecture others.
His strategy also appeared to backfire when he suggested that voters - not politicians - are the ones who are 'out of touch'.
The Glasgow South MP told BBC Radio Five Live: 'The idea that politicians are out of touch is an out- of-touch idea because politicians live in their constituencies, we speak to constituents all of the time and have families of our own.'
With Downing Street desperate to show voters that it understands their concerns over food and fuel prices, ministers were aghast at the row.
But Gordon Brown declined to criticise his minister. He said Mr Harris had been pointing out that Britain had become much wealthier over the past ten years - but had now acknowledged the pressures people faced currently.
'As he said this morning, people are facing very difficult problems in terms of food prices, petrol prices and mortgage prices and he recognised the problems that people are facing,' the Prime Minister said.
The furore erupted after Mr Harris complained on his Internet blog that people seemed to be afflicted by 'crippling levels of cynicism and pessimism'.
Tom Harris
He claimed high-definition TVs are flying off the shelves, people could treat themselves to 'whatever the latest technological innovation', and were spending sums on food and clothes that 'would have made our parents gasp'.
Eating out was as commonplace as going shopping, crime was down and the threat of terrorism had not altered anyone's pattern of behaviour.
He declared: 'In our own country today, despite the recent credit squeeze, our citizens have never been so wealthy. So why is everyone so bloody miserable?'
The Tories said his comments had taken Labour's 'arrogance and complacency to a whole new level'.
But Mr Harris insisted: 'I was simply asking why people in the current generation - even those who aren't suffering as much from the current economic slowdown - aren't as happy as our parents' generation.'
On GMTV, he said: 'Of course people are facing very difficult problems in terms of food prices, petrol prices and mortgage prices.
'I was trying to point out that there is a generational gap between the level of happiness - the difficulty that this generation finds in achieving some level of contentment compared to a generation ago.
'I'm the first to admit that timing isn't my strong point. It would be utterly arrogant of me or anyone else to tell people who are facing very difficult times to cheer up.
'The point I was trying to make wasn't about the day-to- day and shortterm economic problems.
'It was about an environmental, cultural, almost spiritual problem we have where materialism and possessions just aren't cutting it.'
But Mr Harris's blog was also inundated with comments from critics. One, John McDermott, wrote: 'Yep, you and your Parliamentary cronies have never had it so good, that's for sure, with second home allowances and just about everything paid for, including food and council tax.'
But Mr Harris won support from Labour peer Lord Layard, an expert in so-called 'happiness economics'.
He said: 'Surveys show people are no happier now than 50 years ago.
'The reason is deterioration in the quality of human relationships, both with family and very importantly with everybody else generally.'
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Comments (26)
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below?
To come out with a statement like that whilst the UK is in such a state just shows how out of touch this Labour government and it's ministers are with the people they're supposed to support. Another overpaid idiot with no idea!
- John, Lancashire, 20/6/2008 00:46
I wonder if he would swap his salary for the minimum wage.
- Bernie, Dalkeith Midlothian, 20/6/2008 00:44
I would like to add to this to say I have only once ever been this poor in my life before and that was when I was a lone parent in 1975 and was left by my husband with no savings no maintenance and a winter of coal to find which I had to buy on credit and pay back throughout the summer. My daughter was two at the time and I had to claim Social Security at the grand rate of £13 per week. I had no new clothes or holidays then and I don't now. I bought the minimum of cheap food and grew my own veg. I buy cheap food now - often reduced for quick sale - to make end meet.
The only difference now is that I have a husband who runs a car to get to work. The cost of petrol keeps us poor. I am praying for a miracle and that someone will offer me a better job before the energy bill soar this winter - otherwise I don't know what to do. Our diet will soon be on a par with war rations if something doesn't let up soon.
- Kath, Margate, England, 20/6/2008 00:44
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