Gorse Fox sees, in today's Times that there appears to be a sea-change in attitude towards the French ruling class.
"Ségolène Royal, 53, the most likely Socialist rival to Sarkozy and the first French woman to have a real chance of becoming president, has displayed her populist credentials by announcing that she will challenge the perks of MPs. To howls of outrage from the political caste, she called last week for “citizens’ juries” to assess the performance of elected officials."
This seems to be the exact opposite of whet we have in England. Here, MPs continue to feather their nests whilst appraising what the citizen has that could be taken away, taxed, or prevented.
What would be nice in England is Payment by Results for MPs, assessed by their own constituents, with score cards on their performance, published regularly in the media.
But all is not perfect:
“Unlike Britain, there is no counter-weight to challenge the excesses of our elite. Even the press is part of the same ruling family.”
Which is all very fine, but our current government is trying (this very week) to eliminate that counter-weight, as James explains in his letter to a random Lord.
Tags: House of Lords, Payment by Results
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