Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Rise of the Bloodless Party Hack

Good lord! The Sunday Mirror still exists! I had no idea. I have become aware of this startling fact today because it seems to have a story that everybody else is following - Alan Johnson 'taking money from a middle man'. Of course, in a grown-up country this wouldn't be a story at all. All this dodgy donation nonsense has happened because MPs made some needlessly complex rules for themselves which they then proceeded to break. As I have said before, the pol-bloggers have inflated these stories beyond all reason. The result is that any trivial back-office slip can lead to an MP being accused of corruption. But think of the long term effect. We already have a tabloid-driven rule that anybody seeking high office must be utterly clean of any contact with drugs and flawlessly chaste. Now we have a rule that says they must spend most of their time checking every penny that comes their way. Intelligent, thoughtful, original people with any blood in their veins at all would, in the present climate, be insane to want to go into politics. Stupid, bloodless party hacks and automatons are our future. And we deserve it.

5 comments:

  1. Absolutely, but the discomfiture of politicians is always amusing and always feels good - and, as you say, they brought this on themselves. The real downside is that it's pretty well bound to end up with the poor bloody taxpayer having to fund the idiots, simply because they can't keep to their own ridiculous rules.

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  2. Stupid, bloodless party hacks and automatons are our future. And we deserve it.

    How refreshing, by contrast, to make the acquaintance of Jérôme Kerviel, the trader blamed for a €5billion (£3.7 billion) fraud at Société Générale. I could fall into idolatry.Unlimited venture capitalism presented him with an opportunity that he grasped imaginatively.

    So, have I finally met my prince?

    In the sense that all party hacks are barren automatons, there can never be much original thinking or depth. Which certainly explains why I meet so many bores in the course of a normal day. Technically, anyone involved in politics is not really what I would call alive. And here is something I have learned: The languid honesty they call integrity is merely low vitality. Indeed, I can think of no worse life than living an untruth truly.

    I shall make a concerted effort to be wicked. I am filled with hope!

    Dreamy

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  3. Isn't Serena cute when she uses big words? Do you think there might be a future for me in politics? I have almost no opinions, little experience of the real world and am currently unemployed.. also I am sure I would like spending all my time filling in forms and what not.

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  4. Stupid, bloodless party hacks and automatons are our future. And we deserve it.

    Cheer up! It could be worse, Hillary Clinton is in our future, or so it would appear.

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  5. Who deserves it? Isn't it a few mad press lords who make this a big deal to sell more papers?

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