WHY PEOPLE DON'T TRUST POLITICIANS

Nicolas Gibb says it's time MPs

stopped putting party tribal loyalties before honesty

THE British people are rightly cynical about politicians. We have all heard people say, 'All MPs are the same — they're all in it for themselves.'

The cynicism began with non-delivery: things promised that ought to have been delivered but weren't; things promised which were never even possible. The recent past offers countless examples — promising to be tough on crime but, when in power, allowing prison sentences to be shortened so that life can now mean as little as eight years; or promising to raise educational standards but letting many schools continue with the same 1960s teaching methods which result in employers and universities reporting a continuing decline in standards. Perhaps most of all, the voters are fed up with Conservatives promising to cut tax. They remember all too clearly John Major promising year-on-year tax cuts in the 1992 election, and then raising tax by the equivalent of 7p in the pound immediately afterwards.

Cynicism is increased by the yah-boo culture in the House of Commons. No one in normal life would conduct a discussion the way MPs do. Parliamentary debate has become shrill pantomime rather than serious government and responsible scrutiny.

Too many politicians relish their cynical universe. As Edwina Currie recently put it, 'Politicians admire the element of the devious in each other. It is essential, in order for someone to rise, that they have some streak of ruthlessness in their character. And he [John Major] had it. . . . He really had quite a Machiavellian streak about him, and if you're a politician you admire that.'

This exemplifies everything that is, quite rightly, despised about politicians. Until MPs in all parties start to deal with the causes of the appalling loss of faith in politics, voter turnout will keep falling and decision-making will become increasingly removed from democratic control and accountability.

People believe that most politicians are motivated by self-serving or unworthy ideals and so are no longer prepared to let them set interest rates, because they will set them to suit the electoral cycle rather than the needs of the British economy. People don't trust politicians to decide policy on health priori

ties, so that has been handed over to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence. If we carry on down this road, politicians will no longer be able to decide policy on agricultural matters, or defence policy, or road-building, or social-security levels or conditions, or the length of prison sentences.

If politicians are so debased that upon election they are unfit to take policy decisions, we will quickly become a technocracy, not a democracy. Of course experts should advise, but politicians should decide because they are elected to take into account the wider philosophical issues and consequences of a particular policy.

There is only one way to restore confidence in the political system: politicians must regain respect and restore people's faith in politics. We need a revolution in the way politicians conduct their activities. Put simply, politicians must stop being cynical. They must be scrupulously honest in their use of facts and figures. They shouldn't overpromise and they should say what they mean. This means promising only what can be delivered and ensuring that what is promised is actually delivered. It means fully understanding how a policy or promise is to be delivered and understanding past policy failures.

Take the example of policemen on the beat: overwhelmingly, people want more police on the beat, and both parties over the last few elections have promised this. But nothing has happened. There are still virtually no police on the beat, except for the occasional community beat officer. This is deliberate: most chief constables don't believe that policing the beat catches or deters criminals. Politicians have a clear choice. Either they can challenge the chief constables and replace them wholesale with senior officers who believe in police on the beat. or, if politicians think that the chief

constables are right, they can stop making the promise. What cannot continue is the dishonest position of publicly promising more police on the streets while privately accepting the chief constables' view that it shouldn't happen.

In fact, honesty is needed at an even earlier stage in the debate. Until the passage of the Police Reform Act 2002, Home Office ministers didn't have the power to force chief constables to put more police on to the streets. Even ring-fencing money for extra police would not have guaranteed their presence on the streets. As the Conservative party has promised more police on the beat when next in office, this raises the question as to why we opposed the introduction of these powers. I put this point to one of my Conservative colleagues in the House of Commons. He admitted that we couldn't guarantee to implement our policy without these powers, but said that opposing them was just politics. Well, it may be politics, but it's dishonest politics and we should stop it.

As opposition politicians, we should oppose the government when they are wrong and we should support them when they are broadly right. A right-of-centre opposition should be expected broadly to oppose a left-of-centre government when they are being left-wing, and support them when they do right-wing things. Strangely, we tend to do the opposite. We cynically oppose them when, for example, they privatise the air-traffic control service or take on benefit fraudsters. We join Gwyneth Dunwoody when she attacks the government, even though she does so from the Left. We don't join the government and attack Gwyneth Dunwoody because she is attacking our enemy, the red team. We put the party tribe — the blue team — above the philosophical debate, and above honesty.

We have to end yah-boo tribal politics: no more jeering, no more waving of order papers, no more personal abuse. We need to use moderate language, more in keeping with what are often technical differences in policy prescriptions. Our vocabulary should be straightforward, not designed to convey one impression while meaning something else. We must be plain and clear. We must make obsolete the contemptuous concept of 'the politician's answer', The Conservative party must rid itself of the Alan B'Stard MPs and councillors. We must ensure that our parliamentary candidates are motivated by the right things: weed out the fame-seekers, those motivated by the pursuit of prestige and position; parliamentary selection boards must eliminate those addicted to cynical and dishonest politics.

The Conservative party will never be elected until this cynicism has been successfully tackled. The last decade of our period in government was ghastly and steeped in the most appalling cynicism. Therefore, it is for the Conservative party to take the lead in dealing with the problem.

Nicolas Gibb is Conservative MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton.