Poison in the well

Politicians are viewed with some disdain by the general public. This is a profession that attracts little respect

Politicians, rightly or wrongly, are viewed as habitually mendacious, self-seeking, dishonest and wholly untrustworthy.

At the same time, they are all over the media all the time, all day. Today, the World at One, PM are almost wholly dedicated to political stories. The newspapers carry political stories as headline news daily, and TV and the internet bring live and replayable dishonesty to a screen near you.

Like urban rats, it feels as if you can never be more than 10 metres from a politician.

Perhaps it has always been the case that politicians and the truth are strangers. Not just the truth, but any truth. The Elizabethan joke was that an ambassador was someone paid to lie abroad for his country.

What’s different now is the ubiquity of politicians, and with them their ever-present slightly suspect discourse. And it’s hard not to wonder if politicians are poisoning the well of public discussion with an all pervasive dishonesty which, like dry rot, gets a grip and spread rapidly everywhere.

Political parties worry that voter apathy lowers electorate turnout, and thereby weakens the legitimacy of their claims to be representative, democratic, and accountable.

Perhaps one reason for the apparent public secession is that politics simply does not have a trustworthy level of discourse and that that perceived lack of honesty is alienating. Talking about the American political scene, Vonnegut commented that when you listen to a politician you are not really assessing the message, but asking yourself the more basic question: is this an honest man/ woman.

Too often the answer has to be no. Do the test yourself. Think of a few political names, and ask yourself: if my life depended on getting the right advice, which politician would I trust ?

The adversarial nature of British politics, the low intellectual level of parliamentary debate, the 6^th form debating society atmosphere of the House of Commons, the cheap and infinitely depressing barracking in the commons, and the stultifying puerility of PMQs makes one despair.

This kind of poisonous influence pervades political debate in our media. It serves none of us well, and we deserve better. We should demand better.