Why are they in politics?

The voting is over. The circus continues.
Ultra Blairite, James Purnell, resigned and stuck the knife in his Prime Minister. It wasn’t a case of ‘E tu Brutus?’ since Brutus was supposed to have done the dirty deed to save the republic against dictatorship.
These ex-ministers (inc Blears and Smith) are not going because of principle.
It’s not as if they are resigning over an issue such as perhaps against an illegal war.
They are jumping before being pushed or as one tabloid puts it: rats leaving a sinking ship.
Other New Labour MPs are also doing a lot of calculations. If they ditch Brown, they would be bumped into an early election and certain slaughter.
The Spectator even speculates that some Ministers would rather leave now, and bag £120,000 in payouts because it’s almost certain rules will change and MPs/Ministers will not in future get such bonuses.
What have we come to?
Why did n’t these people just join a multinational or an Investment Bank if money is all they crave?
Purnell moved into media & PR (public relations, not proportional representation!). His contacts would have provided lucrative jobs. Why go into politics at all?

Becoming a Minister in the Cabinet was once the pinnacle of achievement. A position of power and influence.
Like sterling, it’s been devalued. The quality of ministers is pitiful. How many will you remember in a year’s time?
Which New Labour politician is thinking of public service? Thinking about what’s right for the constituency, voters and the country?
Are they fighting an ideological war over how to rescue the country from a generational economic decline?
Are they arguing over how we should regain democractic control over the economy?
No. Of course not.
What a naive question.
And of course who do Cameron and Clegg think they are fooling with their false posturing?
They want an election to get some power. Then what? The same free-market unsustainable capitalism which has plunged the people and government alike into monstrous debt?

We are back in 1832 in the age of the rotten boroughs and rotten politics.
It’s all about looking for Number 1.

Farid Bakht