'How many sleaze scandals does it take to clean up politics?' - your letters, plus Fort Dunlop from the air, 1989
Readers air strong views on political accountability, Peter Mandelson’s record, and frustrations with the digital phone switch.
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Time to clean up our politics
If I had a £1 for every time I had heard a political leader promise to end sleaze in public life, I would be as well-heeled as Elon Musk. The latest scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson has only served to prove the inadequacy of the sort of people who have led this country since the tragedy of New Labour.
During this time, we have had lies to force us to war, the surrender of our sovereignty to foreign-based courts, and the British state forced to pay compensation to a vile IRA terrorist. We are no longer a democratic state; instead, our parliament and the executive are beholden to judges and courts, both at home and abroad.
It is a diabolical state of affairs that has led us to this point. Mandelson, alongside Blair, Campbell and Brown, was one of the chief architects of the New Labour project. It has diminished our politics and transferred power to a crony bureaucracy and so-called experts. Power and influence are the currency, and personal gain has supplanted public service as a motive for engaging in politics.
It is time to really clean it up, engage in debate, and stop worshipping personalities that we later find wanting.
Martin Bristow, Midlands
