Disgusted with the daily tales of MPs cleaning their moats, feathering their second nests and feeding their faces at taxpayers' expense, my friend Tony had taken out his ire on the nearest symbol of the democratic process - voting cards for the Euro elections.
Now you would have to know Tony to understand why this small gesture constitutes a turning point in the relationship between the British people and their political masters.
We have been friends the better part of four decades, yet I would not presume to know which way he votes. Politics is not big in our topics for conversation. Or rather, I rage about this or that of life's injustices, and Tony radiates the sunny disposition of a man who has all he needs in life and so can be benignly philosophical about anything which does not touch upon hearth and home.
When a man this easy-going is so affronted that he shreds his polling card, I know that millions of others up and down the country are fed up with government in a way they never have been before.
For now we are caught up in the drama of Speaker Michael Martin, and the daily diet of revelations about MPs' greed. We conjecture which careers may stall on an ill-advised expenses claim, indeed which "honourable" member may end up spending time at Her Majesty's Pleasure. But what happens in the years to come?
In the short term, there will undoubtedly be a spasm of protest voting for parties such as UKIP, the Greens and the BNP. But more damaging still to our democracy is the possibility of a huge drift towards the They're All As Bad As Each Other Party. It goes wider than just our cynicism about professional politicians.
This comes hot on the heels of a momentous loss of faith in banks and financial institutions.
I am old enough to have a very jaundiced view of the free market. My generation was mis-sold personal pensions by Maggie's financial sharks, flogged under-performing endowment mortgages and then watched aghast as City traders trousered Christmas bonuses equivalent to our lifetime's earnings . But even I was astonished at the tales of rapaciousness and risk-taking unveiled as the world of banking came toppling down, bringing our pension funds and paltry share portfolios with it.
Now not only is capitalism a busted flush, but the politicians who cosied up to big business are found to have had a similar warped sense of entitlement.
Even their excuses and apologies now seem calculated to annoy. When Lloyds Banking Group boss Eric Daniels went before the House of Commons Treasury committee, he described his £1m basic wages as "modest".
When Hazel Blears cheerfully waved a cheque for £13,332 to cover capital gains tax on the sale of one of her homes, one could not help but wonder how many of her constituents in Salford could cough up such a sum instantly.
We were already weary of the sly culture of political spin, tired of the Punch and Judy points-scoring of Parliamentary debate, bewildered by a party political spectrum in which idealism was replaced by three pragmatic gangs bumping against each other for the same middle ground. The expenses scandal now spurs us to say a pox on all their houses.
Some predict the rise of the independent MP. Just as Martin Bell swept aside Neil Hamilton in Tatton in 1997 on an anti-sleaze ticket, so Esther Rantzen is considering standing for Parliament against Margaret Moran, the Luton South MP who claimed £22,000 for treating dry rot at her second home in Southampton.
Some say this is the way to revive the people's faith - a Parliament peppered with independents. Who would you want as an MP? Joanna Lumley? Bob Geldof? Billy Bragg? Ant and/or Dec? And would a House of Commons full of individuals be any more than a cacophony of divergent opinion in which nothing ever gets done?
Party politics as we know it may survive, battered and bowed. But MPs have a much bigger job to do than simply repaying dodgy expenses and promising not to do it again. They must win back not just our trust but our respect.
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well mr taylor! you mate tony and his wife are fools! by doing what they've done they have destroyed the one and only way to show the top three partys what we think of them by voting for a party outside of the top three.
You've highlighted the dangers of reasonable, moderate people not voting in an election. If they don't the extremist parties will have a far better chance of winning seats. If that happens, God help us. As a nation we could go into racist meltdown.
Like everyone else i'm sick to death of our bent MP's (who if they committed this sort of crime in the real world would face prosecution!) but i'll be damned if i waste my vote,the only way to show these parasites how much we don't trust them is to vote another potential criminal in unfortunately! but please don't waste that vote,otherwise you can't complain.
By ripping up their poll cards, they have no say in the MEP elections. Perhaps politics is something they do not understand and consequently not interested in. The fact that the EU make laws which affect our daily lives means nothing to them by not showing an interest, reflects how many of the populous couldn’t really give a monkeys whether they cannot buy butter by the pound or cannot display the English flag on their car number plate anymore. They must be resigned to the thinking that they are worthless, that their opinion does not count. Ripping up their own voting card seals their fate. Next time you see them, talk only about the weather since nothing really matters to their type.
What does that mean? there type! what are we aliens or something? with a name like that you would suspect you come from another planet, As for Mr taylor i can see where he is coming from,this counrty is run by those type of aliens who have had everyones pants down, none of them are worth voting for,what we need is to scrap parliment setup something new where peoples votes really count and who can do good for the sake of our debt ridden country.
I urge everyone set aside their disgust with the expenses scandal and to use your vote. The Chartists and the suffragettes struggled for decades to get it. And don't forget that the Pankhursts were from Manchester.
The only option for me in this election is the Greens. They are not racist or warmongers and their policy of a Green New Deal sounds like just what is needed to generate jobs and tackle the environment and the dangers of climate change.
The Labour Party was formed by the unions, but both the unions and Labour leaders have failed to support Working people's interests (with a few honourable exceptions). The Blair crew have effectively eroded Labour's internal democracy to the point where it is unresponsive to the needs of working people. I can't see how ordinary members can change Labour's polices and renew its leaders.
All the of the Blair counter-reforms need to be reversed so that democracy is restored. But Labour needs to go further. The union block vote was undemocratic. It should be decentralised so that local union branches can be represented and vote at conference.
MANDATORY RESELECTION OF MPs in the Labour Party (and all other parties for that matter) should be reintroduced and a mechanism should be established to INSTANTLY RECALL MPs if they break their promises or become corrupt. That is the only way to renew the democratic process.
This touches on a central problem with our system of democracy--it is too remote from ordinary people. Everyone may have the vote, but all the big employers and banks, their powerful lobby groups and PR firms, have direct access to Ministers where important decisions are made. Parliament is a essentially a talking shop for rubber stamping decisions made elsewhere in the Ministries run by senior civil servants. And the senior civil servants are still dominated by the public school old boys and girls network.
Democracy is subverted by the vast inequalities in wealth. Wealth brings power--e.g. the ownership of the media. Does the ordinary voter have the same influence as Rupert Murdoch?