Are we unfair to MPs?
- 1 Feb 08, 03:18 PM
One or two of you have written to us this week to complain that we're unfair to politicians, assuming they're up to no good and generally giving them a hard time.
It is true we've done an awful lot of items in recent days concerning dubious employment practices, dodgy donations and the general lack of transparency about the goings-on of the honourable members.
Do we do too much? It would be good to hear your thoughts.
I certainly subscribe to the view that the majority of MPs are honourable, hard-working people whose primary aim is to serve the public.
I also sympathise, a bit, with the view - expressed again by Alastair Campbell this week - that the and loves a crisis, real or imagined.
But, given all the sleaze crises that politicians have suffered in recent years, it is amazing that even a small number still appear to be willing to bend or ignore the rules.
And while - in this age of transparency - our MPs continue to resist the kind of scrutiny and sanction that others in the public eye face, it is surely right that we ask the likes of Crick, Grossman and Paxman to keep asking awkward questions.
Peter Barron is editor of Newsnight
