Trust is the very essence of a democracy. The Northern Rock crisis was initially dealt with by the chancellor guaranteeing all savings held by the bank. The public believed what was said and the queues of people waiting to withdraw their money faded away.
What would have happened if people had thought the government could not be trusted?
The police are not able to go on strike. They have an understanding with the government that they will be treated fairly in return. Whether you hold the police in high regard or not we all depend on the fact that they are upholding the laws of the land and will do their best to achieve this.
So the home office Minister Jackie Smith deciding that they should be unfairly treated and that the government does not need to keep its moral obligation is very significant.
It is easy to become cynical about MPs and government these days. MPs of all parties are always going on about what a terrible thing it is that the public are so cynical about MPs, Ministers and government. It is hardly any great surprise when a minister shows such stupidity as this. It is obvious to anyone that a government that can be so deceiptful and dishonest as this cannot be trusted in any other way.
We have had years of ‘spin’, countless announcements of money that is being made available for some purpose where the truth is that the money had already been included in other figures made available previously. We had a similar example in the announcement of troop withdrawals from Iraq madeby the prime minister a few months back when many of those troops had previously been announced.
If it looks like shit, smells like shit and tastes like shit there is a good chance that it is in fact, shit.
When goverment ministers show a complete disregard for what is morally right that too is shit. Perhaps it is time we had a new political party who could be trusted to be honest because they would publicly commit suicide if they were found to have been dishonest or morally empty. If the current British Goverment followed this approach there wouldn’t be many of them left.
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