Nepotism - the scourge of the ruling classes!

I hereby call for the resignations of both David Cameron and Nick Clegg on the grounds of nepotism, the scourge of human frailty and my own particular bête noire.

By coming out in defence of David Laws, who was found guilty of using taxpayers’ money to pay his boyfriend more than £100,000, our two chief politicians have shown they cannot be trusted to adhere to consistent logical procedures implemented to ensure the public can have total faith in our elected Members of Parliament.

And before anyone accuses me of being biased, I can declare that I resigned from the Labout Party earlier this year in protest at the nepotism shown last year when electing our Labour Party candidate to fight the General Election.

I understand this human frailty only too well. We are all guilty of it. As soon as we first speak to a total stranger on a bus we are more prone to favour that person over any other passenger – It is the way humans are wired and may appear quite harmless but in actual fact this tendency is responsible for more of the world’s ills than any plague we have ever dealt with.

It might seem good to place people that one can trust in positions of authority. The problem is that vested interests creep in and ‘blind eyes’ are turned often resulting in tragedy. I do not jest when I say that none of the world’s dictators would have existed but for nepotism. What was the first thing that Stalin did before implementing his own will on the Russian people? He launched a massive purge against his native enemies and either had them executed or imprisoned in Siberian gulags. How did Hitler manage to persuade the German people that cultural hegemony was a sound and worthy cause? His first action was to have a massive purge against his native enemies (the original one in 1934 known as ‘The Night of the Long Knives’). And what of Trujillo – massive purge of native enemies by systematic killings and expanded this to indiscriminate killing of Haitians that shared the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. This was known as the Parsley Massacre. And Chairman Mao – massive purge of native enemies and had them horrifically tortured in very graphic circumstances; Saddam Hussein (massive purge of native enemies, mainly Kurds, in the so-called Al-Anfal campaign of genocide). In every case these purges were supplemented by the dictators strategically placing their own choices in the top government positions.

Even with the apparently good regimes such as Kennedy’s ‘Camelot’ the nepotism almost plunged the world into nuclear war because in truth many of JFK’s advisors were not worthy of the positions held.

A form of nepotism got OJ Simpson a reprieve from murder and his current 33 year sentence for armed robbery probably vindicates that assessment. The old pal’s act, money buys anything, if your face fit – call it what you will, but unless the general public has faith in government then we will always be in recession! 

David Laws might be a most affable good-hearted chap but he clearly cannot be allowed to serve in Government because he is tarnished. He might well be totally trustworthy but it is the perception that is all important here and unfortunately he should have thought about the bigger picture. Normally I would love the idea of loyalty to a friend but in asking for clemency for David Laws both David Cameron and Nick Clegg don’t seem to understand that rules are made for a reason and cannot be compromised on a whim or else the fabric of society breaks down. David Laws is an intelligent quick-witted man and will do well in any job he takes on but unfortunately he has burnt his bridges in politics for me.