MPs’ Expenses: class, equality and the most hilarious interview on the subject yet
I am sure that within twenty years or so we will get dozens of academic treatises called something like: “The intersection of politics, class and inequality in the House of Commons Expenses Scandal of 2009: a post-Weberian critical non-realist approach”. However, few would be able to convey how clearly this crisis is tied up with issues of class and good old-fashioned British elitism than the marvellous interview given to BBC radio’s The World at One by Anthony Steen MP today. He’s the Tory who has quit after The Telegraph claimed he spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on his country pile. Go listen. It’s hilarious and enlightening. To give him credit, it is also strangely refreshing to hear an MP who is so totally unrepentant after days of shotgun apologies.
(This edition of The World at One will only be on-line for one week. If you don’t want to listen to the whole programme, the item begins 18 minutes and 10 seconds in.)
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Filed under: Inequality, Politics
I listened to this interview and had I not known that it was The World at One I would have assumed it to be a Bird and Fortune production. Over two hours later and I still haven’t wrenched my chin from the pavement!
The idea that this is all fuelled by property envy and that the public has no right to know how public money is spent is mind-boggling.
I know, it’s brilliant isn’t it? Can anyone explain the reference to the crisis being “just like Coronation Street” though? That’s had me stumped but then I’ve always been more of an Eastenders man.
If you want something more sobering listen to the interview beforehand with a grassroots party activist who has been out canvassing: he tells any politician who claims to understand the depth of anger out there, to double how deep they think it is.
Oh please, if there is a God, can we have Steen as the Chairman next week of Have I Got News For You?