It does not matter what country you are in, politics is pretty much the same. Here in England our press has been exercised by two things. First the rather tedious and pointless, if rather expensive meeting of the so-called G20 – the leaders of the top 20 economies. This will of course produce nothing useful. Much more entertaining is the continuing saga of the copious expenses that our MPs claim. One of them, who is the equivalent of the Minister of the Interior, the Home Secretary Jackie Smith has got herself into particularly hilarious trouble. She has been claiming that her sisters spare room inn London is her main home, thereby allowing her to claim many tens of thousands of pounds in expenses for her family home. As a marvelous bonus, her husband was caught claiming the cost of two porn films he had watched as a legitimate expense which should be funded by the taxpayer. We can be sure that there is much more of the same to come. These two
clowns are not of course alone. Whilst politicians are not ‘all at it’ a very great majority certainly are.
Nothing new for the Albanian reader of course. It is the same everywhere. Albanians have known for many years that their politicians are essentially a corrupt and useless group of people, who would have serious difficulties in acquiring honest or productive work outside politics. In Britain we have always had a healthy contempt for our politicians, but not until recently has it become so intense. People are asking ‘what exactly do we pay these people for and why do we pay them so much?’ One answer comes from someone called Chris Mullen, who until he got elected to parliament was a well-regarded journalist. Eventually he became a junior minister in Blair’s government. His 600 page book ‘A View from the Foothills’ is a very funny account of the desperate tedium and incompetence at the heart of government. It is surely the same in Albania. When I lived in Tirana I was always impressed by the fact that every time I entered an expensive hotel, the
Rogner for example, it would be infested with MPs and ministers, smoking and drinking coffee. They would spend, sometimes , all day there. No doubt they were discussing the welfare of their constituents and the way forward for the country.
Do you know a single person who believes that?
My point is that politicians are pretty much the same everywhere. They have essentially the same qualities or lack of them. They talk a great deal, they are greedy, few of them are realistically honestly employable outside politics and finally they have a very highly developed sense of their own importance. In one sense therefore, you have to ask yourself whether there is any point in having them at all. But consider this; where would they be without a parliament to infect. The answer, dear readers is of course they would be on the street. They would be bothering you even more. Best thing is to keep them penned up where they are. Yes, they are expensive. But they do provide occasional comedy and more importantly, they provide someone to blame. After all, it is all their fault.
