Public Life and Private Mess - What is the cost to the local community?

Public life often gets devalued through cynicism and distrust. Reluctant as I am to quote the Daily Mail from the other day, they expressed a commonly held sentiment that it is all about 'snouts in the trough'. Without getting in to a defense of pigs as a species (of whom I am very fond) this sort of headline will resonate with many. 

At the same time people who are excluded or uninvolved in all types of public life (political and non-political) feel remote from this other world too. We need to build bridges and involve more people from local communities in public life and public decision making. So when things go wrong and people in public life let us down we have a problem.

My local M.P. (Member of Parliament) has just been investigated by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee  following allegations of over payment of public funds to family members. As a consequence he has been suspended from the Tory parliamentary party. See the  BBC report of the full story here. 

I don't know what should happen next with this particular situation - this is for others in Parliament to work out and decide. But what I do know is that if a person on the fringes of our society had been caught doing something financially dubious - for example, allegations of benefit fraud - then they would be in serious trouble. And this is often on a far smaller scale in terms of the monies involved. Indeed we spend millions of pounds each year producing adverts and TV commercials to highlight a campaign against those on benefits who may exploit the system. There is a contrast here and it reinforces peoples' perceptions that there is a 'them and us' situation.

Public life is precious and we need to value and protect it's integrity. We need to attract honest people who are rooted in their communities. We need to draw from a wide range of voices. 

Let's hope we learn something from this sad situation. I hope it will not put off good people from coming froward to serve their communities. Because this would be the true cost of a breakdown of trust in public life.