The late Lord Denning said the above words.
If they mean anything they mean that MPs are as subject to the law as we are.
No rules can exonerate them.
If the rules say it is all right to steal, to defraud and to embezzle, then the rules are meaningless. Such rules can be no defence in law.
If a gang of thieves get together to make rules about what they will, or will not, steal and how the proceeds are to be realised and shared, these rules will not protect them from the law.
The police will arrest them and magistrates, judges and juries will convict and condemn.
So should it be, and so should it be for our elected representatives.
In their overweening arrogance and blind disdain they think they can shrug off their guilt.
Let it not be so.
Our police, happy to gun down the innocent, will take no action until a complaint has been made.
So, really, nobody did anything wrong then?
Friday 22 May 2009
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Shoot the messenger, shoot the messenger's horse, shoot the sheriff, shoot the sheriff's dog -but not the guilty
The Speaker of the House of Commons has been forced to resign.
So that’s it then. All sorted.
Well, not quite.
The shamed, the shameless, and the shameful are making for the exits and the dark corners.
If the light turns towards them, they stare back brazenly. "I was told that it was OK" they say.
This is the Nuremberg Defence.
Or, they wave a just-written still-wet cheque for what a working man will earn in a year.
"Look!" they say, "I am giving it back".
Oh, how often have magistrates heard that one?
Those who have dwelt uncomplainingly, comfortably, within the Mother of Parliaments now want it to change. They peer uncomprehendingly from their warm, safe, cess-pit and promise to do better. They have run with the fox and now wish to hunt with the hounds.
("I’ve always been on the side of reform but the rest of them...")
Not good enough.
The public does not wish for reformation, but for revenge.
Revenge on a parcel of thieves and cheats.
A clean start with clean shepherds and a clean sheet.
So that’s it then. All sorted.
Well, not quite.
The shamed, the shameless, and the shameful are making for the exits and the dark corners.
If the light turns towards them, they stare back brazenly. "I was told that it was OK" they say.
This is the Nuremberg Defence.
Or, they wave a just-written still-wet cheque for what a working man will earn in a year.
"Look!" they say, "I am giving it back".
Oh, how often have magistrates heard that one?
Those who have dwelt uncomplainingly, comfortably, within the Mother of Parliaments now want it to change. They peer uncomprehendingly from their warm, safe, cess-pit and promise to do better. They have run with the fox and now wish to hunt with the hounds.
("I’ve always been on the side of reform but the rest of them...")
Not good enough.
The public does not wish for reformation, but for revenge.
Revenge on a parcel of thieves and cheats.
A clean start with clean shepherds and a clean sheet.
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