It's old, old politics all the way

Hasan Suroor

A high-profile ministerial resignation, an ill-tempered row with the BBC, attempts to silence backbench dissent, ministers refusing to give up their chauffeur-driven limos while ordering thousands of job-cuts in the name of austerity.....Sounds like “new'' politics?

Barely three weeks into office and Britain's ruling coalition is exhibiting all the traits of the old discredited culture that it was meant to replace. For a grouping that came to power pretending to be whiter than white and promising to change the way Westminster politics was run by Labour, the Tory-Lib Dem project couldn't have had a worst start.

Every blow and every embarrassment the coalition has suffered in its brief time in office is self-inflicted. It has brought itself low by its own actions with both partners in the coalition contributing in equal measure to their own humiliation.

The most politically damaging has been the resignation of David Laws, a senior Lib Dem figure and Treasury Secretary, over allegations of abusing the parliamentary expenses claims system. Contrary to the rules, barring MPs from “leasing” accommodation from partners and spouses at taxpayers' money, he claimed more than £40,000 over a period of eight years to rent rooms from his gay partner, James Lundie, a fellow-Lib Dem and high-profile lobbyist.

Toxic issue

The abuse of expenses claims is a toxic issue in British politics. Many well-regarded MPs in the last parliament had their careers cruelly destroyed after being accused of fiddling their expenses claims and the election was dominated by a campaign for greater transparency and accountability in the way politicians spend public money. All the parties vowed to “clean up” the system and usher in a new era of morality in politics.

Ironically, the Lib Dems were the loudest in condemning MPs tainted by the scandal. The party leader Nick Clegg famously claimed that “not a single Liberal Democrat MP” was involved.

In one of the televised leaders' debates Mr. Clegg pointedly told voters: “There are MPs who flipped one property to the next, buying property paid by you, the taxpayer, and then they would do the properties up, paid for by you, and pocket the difference on personal profit....I have to stress not a single Liberal Democrat MP did either of these things.”

Indeed, as the Lib-Dem supporting Observer newspaper pointed out Mr. Laws himself declared “more than once” that he would be transparent in claiming expenses and attacked the then Speaker Michael Martin for resisting reforms to make parliament modern and accountable.

The newspaper said Mr. Laws' actions had made a “mockery” of claims of “new politics.”

Mr. Laws says his motivation in not disclosing his relationship with his landlord was not financial gain but to protect his privacy as he did not want to reveal his sexuality. However critics retort that a minister's concern for his privacy is not a good enough reason for him to use taxpayer's money. Besides, Mr. Laws himself is a millionaire (he was a high-flying investment banker before joining politics) and can afford to invest his own money in protecting his privacy.

Mr. Laws has also ruffled feathers in the gay community by his squeamishness to acknowledge his sexuality. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay campaign group Stonewall, said it was “tragic” that a senior MP of a party which had long supported homosexuality as a matter of principle felt it “appropriate to remain silent about who he was until 2010.”

One commentator described the Laws affair as the “worst possible scandal at the worst possible time” for the government. But even before the Laws scandal erupted, the coalition was grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Last week, there was a media storm after it emerged that Downing Street had tried to pressure the BBC into dropping a Labour figure from its flagship current affairs programme Question Time. It said the government would nominate a minister to represent it on the show provided it agreed to drop Alastair Campbell, a staunchly anti-Tory Labour man and former communications chief of Tony Blair when he was prime minister. The BBC refused saying politicians could not “dictate who sits on the panel.”

Much to the embarrassment of the government, the show began with a statement from its host David Dimbleby explaining the absence of any government minister on the panel. He said it was for the BBC, not Downing Street, to decide who would be on Question Time.

With justified glee, Labour recalled how, in opposition, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems never lost a chance to accuse it of interfering in the BBC's independence. And, look, what they were doing now.

“Pathetic,” Mr. Campbell intoned, of course, conveniently forgetting his own efforts as the chief of Downing Street's spin machine to bully the BBC.

The BBC row came amid a backlash from Conservative MPs over their leader and prime minister David Cameron's decision to impose ministers and whips on a key committee of backbench members in what was seen as an attack on its independence. After days of negative publicity, Mr. Cameron was forced to drop the plan but it reinforced the perception that the “old” politics of central command-and-control was very much alive.

We all know that the real film is seldom is as exciting as the trailer promises but we also know how the audience reacts when it feels cheated — and what happens to the film that seems to bear no resemblance to pre-release hype. It bombs.