Not ‘off with their heads’

The Guardian columnist Jackie Ashley is getting vilified by online commentators for her defence of a proportionate response to the New Labour funding debacle [here]. I’ve chipped-in with some support, see below, because if the ‘off with their heads’ mob get their way the possibility of a mistake is removed from our political system and replaced with an immediate ‘conviction’ of corruption. That’s short-termism that will come back to haunt us.

“Most of the posters are missing the point of Ashley’s argument which is that there should be a proportionate response to rules that are broken. It’s a well-trodden path - we have a variety of punishments when different laws are broken and, in most cases, a range of punishments for breaking a particular law.

If we deny politicians the possibility of making mistakes (even where this breaks a law) we lose much more than we gain. The result will make the temptation to hide irregularities even greater and will deter all but the bravest of souls from contributing to public life.

This doesn’t mean having one law for the elite and another for the rest of us. It means that criminal charges are brought but that the consequences (beyond that imposed by the courts) are clearly proportionate. Deliberate attempts to conceal funds or deceive are simply not the same as inadvertent mistakes. If we stop making such a distinction we might feel better in the short-term by claiming a few political scalps but the longer-term consequences will not be in our interests as a society.”  Posted as Eric61 around 10:45pm on 5th December.