Where does this bias come from?

Richard Willis and Mark Thompson have both written up a story about sleaze in government, referencing a Sunday Times investigation.

-

Firstly, Cllr Willis claims that the sums of £1-3,000 taken in the 'Cash for Questions' scandal are "very small" (even discounting the effects of inflation since the early 1990's!), before attempting to sidestep the issue of exactly how widespread the practice was in the Conservative party at the time.

Far be it from me to point out to Cllr Willis that the Sunday Times' claim that the four Labour peers 'fees' of £1-5,000 per day are not so dissimilar to those requested byConservative MPs in the Thatcher-Major years, but his article does take on the appearance of trying to make a partisan point at the expense of several vital facts.

Cllr Willis completely neglects any idea of how the practice subverts parliamentary democracy, by whoring the duty of MPs to represent their constituents and breaking the oath of alleigence to uphold the law, made when an MP or Peer enters the Houses of Parliament for the first time.

He then attempts to contrast the 'Cash for Questions Affair' with Tony Blair's 'Bernie Ecclestone Affair', commenting:
"This is very serious for Labour. It has the smell of a decaying administration about it but also the sight of Labour politicians profiteering at a time when the country is in dire straight is potentially deadly."

Cllr Willis also neglects to mention the Cash for Influence Affair'', which, while less famous actually did most to expose how the system of government under Labour was able to be perverted for private interests.

Surely the most important question is, however, were the Peers implicated by the Sunday Times also guilty of buying their titles in the 'Cash for Honours Affair'? If this is the case, then the stench is not of a decaying administration, but of one which was rotten from the start.

Oranjepan asks:
Is Cllr Willis striking a blow in a personal campaign against corruption in politics, or is he explaining to us that he knows how to take advantage of the system?

-

Mark Thompson takes a slightly different approach to the issue, actually defending the vast majority of politicians in the system.

He expresses the scepticism about politics he has personally faced and considers whether there is a connection between apathy and corruption.

He states that it is "clear that they [Labour, ed.] [are] as bad if not worse than the [previous] Tory government," adding, "I am sure most of the people in the Blair government wanted to do the right thing, as was undoubtedly the case with the Tories that went before them."

He argues passionately: "Something will have to change and soon, otherwise I will eventually come to the conclusion that the politicians in power actually want the system that we currently have."