Trust

The LibDems are in a mess of their own making. Watching them twist and turn on the hook of their pre-election pledge to abolish tuition fees has been disturbing and also revealing. Student protests are hurting.  As different factions within the party agonise, there is a fundamental issue to address, namely that of trust. There is a difference between what they said and what they are doing. But are the LibDems unique in this?

Within a few weeks of being elected Andrew Lansley established himself as a Health Minister with a mission. None of his ‘reforming’ zeal was in the Tory Manifesto, “Safe in our hands”, “national treasure, etc etc.” He justifies what he is doing by saying that he mentioned it several times in the years before the election. Maybe he did, but it was not on the radar and it certainly was not in the Tory Manifesto. What we have now is a complete overhaul in the way the Health Service will be run.  

Lansley is the man who showed himself up on ‘Question Time’ when he admitted ‘earning’ what he thought was a perfectly acceptable £30,000 for several hours work in a year, as a non-executive director. He was shocked to find that the vast majority of the audience disagreed. He is in thrall to big business and his ‘reforms’ will open the door to private medicine and the egregious US-led insurance companies. Anyone who thinks this is not likely are advised to look at who he has appointed to advise him on government food policies - McDonalds, Coca Cola and other junk food purveyors. Who said satire was dead?

What is odd is the way Labour are seemingly allowed by the media to have distanced themselves from their recent past. Labour introduced tuition fees - despite there being no mention in their manifesto. Labour were in thrall to big business too, to the detriment of their poorest supporters. Labour lied about the reasons for the Iraq War. Not much trust there. 

One thing Wikileaks can be thanked for is pointing up the difference between what we are told, for example in Afghanistan, and what is actually happening. It also shines a light into some very dark corners such as the Chagos Islanders situation. 

It was revealed this week-end that several MPs have turned their second homes into nice little earners by renting out the property they acquired at taxpayers expense and claiming rent for another. As David Chator awaits sentencing, he can consider himself unlucky. There were many, many more who played the system to massive advantage and who have not been charged. Some of them are now in the government.

And they expect us to trust them.