We know that the British public holds the political class in more contempt than ever, and it did not take the expenses scandal to reach that pass. Turnout has slumped over the past three general elections. The rise of the BNP, Ukip and the Greens displays the search for alternatives to three main parties that are seen as institutionalised in their careerist, self-serving approach to politics. With another election due within nine months, our democracy looks unattractive.
Even so, the Prime Minister contrives day after day to make things worse: and his cronies and fellow ministers contrive to follow and support him in this decline of reputation and standards. Not since 1992, and the debacle of Black Wednesday, can one remember a time when the credibility of a government collapsed so rapidly and so utterly during a long summer recess as over the past three weeks. Had the Westminster village been full, one wonders whether Mr Brown would at last have met his downfall.
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