Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue

Mrs Hacker (referring to backbench MPs) But aren’t they underpaid in fact?

PM Jim Hacker – Underpaid? Backbench MPs? Darling being an MP is a vast subsidised ego trip. It is a job for which you need no qualifications, there are no compulsory hours of work, no performance standards, you get a warm room and subsidized meals for a bunch of self-opinionated windbags and busybodies, they only find that people take them seriously because they have the letters MP after their name. How can they be underpaid when there are about 200 applicants for every vacancy?

The episode A real partnership from Yes Prime minister

Just as among fish of the sea, the greater swallow up the smaller ones, so with men, were it not for fear of the government, men would swallow each other alive. This is just what we learnt: R. Hanina, the Deputy High Priest, said, Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear thereof, men would swallow each other alive.
Bavli Avodah Zarah 4a

In the midst of this election season I find myself thinking a great deal about both of these sentiments. First I am depressed at how little British politics has changed since the days of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. Those on whom we rely to lead and govern this country time and again seem to place their own welfare above that of the common good. Am I the only one who was even more amazed and appalled by the excuse given by parliamentarians for rules, which seem to invite abuse than by the abuse, itself? After all, both those who broke the rules and many of their colleagues who did not proclaimed openly that the rules were set up as they have been to allow MPs to take as expenses money that they are convinced they should receive as salary. I am not a tax lawyer but surely this is tax evasion if not outright tax fraud. But I am afraid that as much as I am appalled I am not surprised. George Washington was much praised for refusing a salary to lead the Continental Army in the American war of Independence (sorry to raise what I know is for some of you still a sore subject).

But it transpired that the expenses that he claimed and was paid were far more than he ever could have received as salary. Ehud Olmert and all too many Israeli leaders have been accused of malfeasance. Yasser Arafat has been accused of stealing upwards of one billion dollars from the Palestinians etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

Yet if all of these were added together they could not begin to match the corruption, cruelty and depravity of the government of Roman as practised in Judea. Again and again the Talmud (and even Roman sources) paints a picture of a government that is seemingly beyond redemption. A government that twice drove the people to such despair that they rose in hopeless revolt. Even to act as a member of the local councils was to put one’s wealth and physical wellbeing at risk to such an extent that many of the leaders of the people fled abroad giving up all their property and their homes rather than be forced to serve. . And yet Rav Hanina admonishes his contemporaries to pray for that government. Why is this so? Surely no government is better than bad government.

I once held this view (after all I have never met a politician who I thought knew what was better for me than I did). I no longer do. I recognise that only as a community can we hope to control, however imperfectly, the avarice, selfishness and dishonesty that lies within each of us. But we can not do this with mere rhetoric or righteous indignation. We must pray for and act for a better government. In the next few days you will, I hope, choose to act and vote as your conscience sees fit. I hope that you will examine not only the policies of the parties but also the character and integrity of the people who are standing for office. The people who will claim to represent you. Power corrupts and no system yet devised can prevent this. But an individual can choose how they will act and for what they will stand.

I would be the last one to pretend that I have the right or the wisdom to tell anyone else how to vote, but I urge you to vote with seriousness of purpose, for all of us individually and collectively share responsibility for the society in which we live.