George Osborne (MP for Tatton) was recently appointed editor of the Evening Standard (a national newspaper in the U.K.). A senior serving member of parliament now decides headlines for a popular national newspaper. Having an MP be editor of a newspaper is worrying regardless of whomever the MP is, but the fact that it’s George Osborne is even more terrifying. The policies him and his party have put in place have targeted the most vulnerable. He’s been disastrously bad at his job: he promised to eliminate the deficit within one term and came nowhere near close – he actually created more debt for us (thanks, mate!), living conditions have dramatically fallen, he’s peddled disillusionment within ignored communities… The list goes on. The thing is though, we all knew the Conservatives had the press in their pockets, this just proves it even more so.
It’s obvious that he doesn’t take his job as a MP seriously, as a news station (ITV) went to his constituency in Tatton and interviewed a few locals, most of which said they’d “not noticed him around doing particularly much”, and one reckons “he’s more interested in the money he can earn … than his dedication to the community” . This proves that he simply views his job as an MP as a springboard for making more money, rather than as a job to be taken seriously. It’s disgraceful to see a man squander his all important position for the sake of another job. Having a seat on the benches in parliament is an honor and a privilege; an MP’s job is to serve, give a voice to the voiceless, to take on injustice, to be altruistic, to be compassionate, and to debate as to what you think is best for the people of whom you represent. George Osborne thinks he’s too good for this. He’s got money to make!
He says parliament is enhanced by MPs taking outside work. Apparently it enhances parliament, when he neglects his constituents yet again by taking on ANOTHER job. Where oh where to begin… Well, I guess I’ll begin with this: when you’re an MP, if you take outside work, there is every chance that said outside work will try to exploit your position as an MP. Take Andrew Lansley, for example – former health secretary who then received a £21,000 donation from John Nash, the former chairman of Care U.K. (a private healthcare company). These corporations are exploiting the connections that MPs have with the democratic process in order to exert more control over our broken democracy.
We’ve ended up with a would be hilarious if it wasn’t so depressing situation where a man with no journalistic experience is now an editor of a newspaper. All this does is prove how an oligarchy works, where the job you get depends more on who you know than actual talent. He has bought his way into success, and this is a huge reflection of our society. George Osborne is a shame on our government. There is to be a ruling in parliament as to whether parliament think that there is a conflict of interest with him being an MP and editor of a newspaper, and if they say their isn’t a conflict of interest, satire will be completely dead!
