Party leaders fight over MP expenses moral high ground

It's all hotting up in the pre-election squabble for the moral high ground!

The MP's facing charges of false accounting face a possible 7 years in jail if found guilty...and if they can't use their 'get out of jail free' parliamentary privilege card. I'm sure I can't be alone in suspecting that the wheels of justice might move very slowly in their cases and that, if all else fails, they'll end up complaining that a fair trial isn't possible because of all the publicity.

The truth is that the moral high ground was lost to all politicians the moment their 'expenses' claims came under scrutiny. They lost it when complaining that they were 'just following the rules' or 'accepted protocol'. Accepted by whom? Rules established by whom and for whose benefit?

We all work within accepted 'norms'. The 'rules' by which we play the game

These rules are however never inviolate. If they were no laws would ever change, no progress be achieved or no new distinctions made. Rules are as alive as the people who abide by them. They must be questioned and tested, pushed and probed to ensure that they are still appropriate. In this case the acceptance of 'rules' is no more morally acceptable than agreeing to participate in ethnic cleansing, extra-marital affairs or gang violence. Just because someone else said it is OK does not make it so. Business owners can often become so cocooned that they make up their own rules. They end up in court for not paying their bills, mistreating their staff or cheating their customers.

There is no moral high ground to fight over. If you are a politician in today's parliament it's already been forfeit. If you ever behaved like this in your business would your customers forgive you? 

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