WHY DO YOU STAND IN AN ELECTION – BUT SIT AS AN MP?

Musings on a strange choice of career...

The general election of 2010 is the 7th election I will have voted in. I belong to a core group of journalists who have been able to see how privileged we are to have such freedom in our democracy. Anyone who has witnessed political systems that restrict your right to vote or your freedom to choose who to support, will find it hard to sympathise with those who cannot be bothered to take time to put a cross on their ballot paper.

I deeply object to people who don’t vote, similarly those who want a “none of the above” column to register their disapproval. To me, they belong to the masses who are content to moan about how the country is run, but never do anything about it. Sitting on the sidelines criticising is the province of the overweight armchair football fan. If it’s so easy - why don’t you try it?

Even worse are those who announce proudly that they can’t be bothered excusing their actions by saying  “well they’re all the same aren’t they?”. It’s not entirely their fault. They’re fed a rather paltry diet of information about what the job actually involves. Sadly the tabloid press would have us believe that the people who run the country can have their work condensed into a few paragraphs. Politics is a messy business and as such it needs voters to indulge it. To fully understand government policy and the vastness of the statistics involved in it, requires concentration. Something the majority are not prepared to give. Newspapers readily throw numbers around as they are the easiest way to grab people’s attention. £1billion budget deficit for the NHS! Damn that sounds like a big number - until you understand that it’s just 1% of the health service budget. The Treasury error for forecasting total budget deficit is 2 percent of government spending – so a £1billion deficit means the NHS has performed twice as well as the government as a whole. Few businesses would think hitting a financial target to within 1% anything other than management of the most brilliant precision.  If you want to know just how distorted statistics can be made to look by newspapers – you should read “The Tiger That isn’t” by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot – from whom that illustration is taken. It really will make you read headlines in a completely different way.

In general I have some sympathy with newspaper readers as I believe they are often mislead by journalists who have an agenda. Having worked in newsrooms up and down the country - mainly for the BBC - I can honestly say that  I have never been asked to give a political slant to any story I have written or any feature that I have broadcast. So it sticks in the throat every time the Daily Mail leaps upon a story about the BBC and castigates it for inaccuracy or profligacy. I sometimes wish that there was a requirement for newspapers to have a red banner at the top of their front page - declaring that the views represented inside belong to the political agenda of the proprietor and you should be aware that other views are also available! I chose to be a broadcast journalist for the precise reason that the information I create relies on seeing or hearing the words of the person themselves, not reporting them third hand and making them say something they didn’t. To this day, I cannot recall a single magazine or newspaper feature that I have been interviewed for, that hasn’t misrepresented what I actually said.

As a broadcaster, I refereed political debates for both the BBC and LBC. In my cub reporter days working for the BBC in Oxford, I learned very quickly which MP’s would be given airtime. Those that regularly made themselves available would be the first to be called. When presenting a breakfast show, as I did having just turned 20, knowing that you had a reliable and valid viewpoint that you could call on at 5.30 in the morning made all the difference to who you’d ring first for comment on overnight developments. Tony Baldry - then Tory MP for Banbury (and still standing in 2010 some 25 years later) wasn’t always as helpful as Oxford East’s Steve Norris (who later went on to fight as the Tory candidate in London’s Mayoral election). As a result Steve got almost twice the on-air exposure that Tony was given . Douglas Hurd (Witney) and Michael Heseltine (Henley) were also accostable, although as more senior politicans, negotiation had to be done with their minions rather than directly. An interview with “Tarzan” himself, for Radio 4’s The World This Weekend, at the height of the Westland affair was enlivened by the presence of a radio controlled helicopter on his desk. I was too junior to dare ask whether I might try flying it.

I also covered the London political scene on LBC on a Sunday morning, and my regular guests included Charles Kennedy (prior to his leadership and his alcohol confessions) Shaun Woodward (before he crossed the floor to join the New Labour) and the always affable Steve Pound (an ever present face in the media - he’ll happily turn up to the opening of an envelope if it means getting publicity). The debates were always wide ranging and full of spin - but it was always apparent that the people around the table had the courage of their convictions and believed they were making a real difference in attending the House of Commons.

The influence that the newspapers have on the public’s voting habits shouldn’t be underestimated. Kelvin McKenzie’s Sun newspaper headline in 1992 - placing Neil Kinnock’s head in a lightbulb accompanied with the words: “Will the last person to leave the country please turn out the light?” has to be the single most damaging piece of political journalism of the 20th Century. True, Kinnock had done himself no favours by appearing pre-emptively victorious at a Labour Party rally in Sheffield some days earlier, but anyone who was undecided on the day of the election merely had to catch sight of the headline as they passed the newsstand and they were absolved of having to understand the reasoning behind the words. They simply took it at face value. Any politician, let alone a party leader, deserves better than that.

Service providers will tell you that any form of testimonial from a happy customer can impact hugely on a potential purchasers decision about whether to use the service - whether you know the person who made the recommendation or not. The fact that someone has said that they were “fabulous” is enough for you to believe that their service will also be “fabulous” when you use them yourself - regardless of the fact that you’ve never met the person who recommended them and probably never will - nor will you ever know if they were capable of  making a reasoned adjudication.  McKenzie knew that a poor testimonial will damage the chances of any future business - whether people trusted the Sun’s point of view or not.

Sadly - this acceptance of the definitive assessment by commentators means that politicians become increasingly wary of giving them any opportunity to criticise. David Cameron’s recent appearance at a friend’s wedding, dressed in a suit while all the other male attendees were wearing morning garb, was clearly designed to avoid any association with the similarly attired photographs of his University days, when he was part of the privileged Bullingdon Club. Not his desired choice - but an example of how our demands for perfect politicians propel them to behave in abnormal ways.

By treating politicians as if they should behave with all the attributes of a latter day saint, we do them a disservice. In effect we end up with the politicians we deserve. If, every time they demonstrate human foibles we self righteously bombard them with criticism, then we only have ourselves to blame. “Bigotgate” was remarkable – not for the fact that someone might not agree with the sentiments of a voter and use a judgemental term to describe them in a private conversation, but because it highlighted what happens when you’ve been surrounded by the trappings of power for too long. Gordon Brown – like many others who attain high political status – feels that the voters are in general beneath him. Despite his apology – he illustrated clearly that voters are a bit of nuisance when it comes to running the country, especially if they don’t listen to you and immediately agree. Becoming a politician isn’t so much about serving the populous, as pushing through your philosophies and exerting your power. As a broadcasting colleague once said to me - you should be just that bit suspicious of anyone who decides to stand for election as an MP as they truly believe that they have the right to tell others what to do.

It was an aspect of my father’s parliamentary career that always amused me. He long harbored an ambition to enter Parliament. Peter Gold (my surname was taken from my stepfather when my Mother remarried) stood for the Liberal Democrats in 1987, 1992 and 1997. He was the Lib Dem’s Education spokesman - despite only being a PPC (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) in the days when there simply weren’t enough LibDem MP’s to cover all the departments they needed a spokesperson for. You could say that he laid some of the ground work for Nick Clegg - as he fought the Sheffield Hallam seat on two of his unsuccessful appearances on the hustings. In fact such was his political skill, had he still been fighting in these days of LibDem ascendance, there’s every chance he would have realised his dream. My Father moved to the West Country after divorcing his second wife and fought his last battle in the constituency of Wells, giving the Tory MP David Heathcote-Amory the fright of his life and a majority of just 528 votes.  Sadly if he had stayed in Sheffield, he would have benefitted from the biggest swing to the Lib Dems in the country. It was enough for him to give up his political ambitions.

Having watched it first hand, you should never underestimate the emotional distress that losing a political campaign can have on the individual and their loved ones. While we have seen MP’s exposed publicly and many humiliated by their arrogance and lack of social morals – it’s often been a tough ride for them to attain public office and it can be swiftly removed from them. Spare a thought then for all those standing for election next week who have little hope of making it to Westminster. Far more will fail in the early hours of May 7^th than will succeed. Some will have given up their jobs to make time to canvass. Others will have their lifelong hopes dashed in a single declaration. And after the emotional rollercoaster ride of standing for election in the campaign – no wonder they need to sit as an MP.