“Within the rules” has become just the latest Westminster catchphrase that is guaranteed to raise a laugh, as we learn more and more of the shocking details of how MPs have exploited the system of allowances to line their pockets at the tax payer’s expense. News reports suggest that public anger has never been this great since large crowds gathered by the River Thames to cheer when a fire burned down the old Palace of Westminster in 1834. We will rightly expect not just resignations, but even, in the most extreme cases, prosecutions.
But what are we to make, really, of these revelations? Who are we, to take the moral high ground?
If the current scandal shows anything, it is only what the Church has always taught: that human beings are sinners, and that none of us is immune to temptation. Who of us, with our hand on our heart, could swear that we would not have done the same? In a situation where the rules seem to permit a generous leeway of interpretation, and the official advice given has been that such claims are “within the rules”, isn’t it inevitable that people will take advantage of it? Everyone else is doing it, so you would be a fool not to. And it’s not as if the British political system is all that corrupt. It’s said that our politicians are “no worse” than those in much of the rest of Europe, while in some countries, like Italy and much of Africa, corruption is said to be much worse.
Furthermore, we are all part of a society where for decades old-fashioned ideas like duty, service and self-sacrifice have been mocked, while the prevailing culture has encouraged greed, envy, and the headlong pursuit of wealth and pleasure. It’s said that people get the leaders they deserve. If we would all do it, given the chance, how can we judge our political leaders if they do the same? It would be better just to accept the reality of the situation, and shrug it off as the way of the world.
Yet we don’t do that; and this is the other great thing we can learn from these scandals. The Church also teaches that, even though we are all sinners, we are also beings of priceless worth and value, each of us made in the image of God. We have a deep moral sense, and we desire both to do what is right and to see it done. Even though we know we don’t always live up to our own moral standards, we know that moral standards exist and should be lived up to.
This is why it has been so sickening to see, first of all, some MPs trying to justify what they have done and claim there was nothing wrong with it. When this didn’t work, some of them began to apologize for their ‘mistakes’. This also won’t do. A mistake is when you accidentally add the figures up wrong, and write a 5 instead of a 3. Not when you put in a claim for hundreds of thousands of pounds you’re not entitled to. We need politicians to show that they clearly believe there are such things as right and wrong, and that morality is not relative, or an option we can either choose to follow or not. We need them to be prepared to live lives that are a model of probity: how can we expect to create a law-abiding society, if our law-makers are dishonest? We need them to confess that they have done wrong, that fraudulent exploitation of the system is a sin and a crime. Only then can there begin to be forgiveness, and a restoration of trust.
In the end, you cannot claim that simple wrongdoing is “within the rules” when you are the person who makes the rules. Even the highest rule-maker or legislator is subject to a higher law, the law of God. That is where we will be held to account, so we had better start living as people who are accountable, even when we think there is no one who sees. As citizens we should certainly pray for our politicians, and frequently remember they are human just like the rest of us; but we will also demand of them the very highest standards of honesty and integrity.
Published in the Marston Times, June 2009