The loonies are running the asylum

I am obliged to Peter Briffa and his always witty and sharp blog for pointing me to this article in The Guardian in which Mark Oaten reveals rather more about himself than he realises.  Many years ago when I was a subscriber to The Spectator I used to read and enjoy Auberon Waugh's vitriolic descriptions of the scabrous denizens of Westminster whilst assuming that he was exaggerating for the sake of a good essay.  It was only gradually that I realised that he was deadly serious and meant every word.  Members of Parliament are, on the whole, deeply peculiar people, definitely not the sort of people you would wish to entertain in your own home and, as Mr. Oaten, himself, proves, very definitely not the sort of people you would want to marry your daughter!

Who else but a psychiatric and social inadequate could spend a lifetime struggling, creeping, betraying and lying to stay in a 'profession' in which, to quote Oaten, himself, "... politics isn't a place where you achieve anything. You go through the motions, you sit with the pressure groups and say things like, 'Oh, we'll table an early day motion, we'll meet with the minister.' But, actually, it's like pushing a stone up a mountain. Once you've realised that getting things done around that place is nigh on impossible, your busy little mind turns to something else."  But the horrifying thought is that actually politics is the place where things get done, if you are, by a sheer fluke, one of the lucky monkeys who actually reaches the top of the greasy pole.  The thought that they are all more or less like Oaten is not a thought upon which I wish to dwell.  Pass the Laphroaig!

Comments

[JuliaM]

"to quote Oaten, himself, "... politics isn't a place where you achieve anything. You go through the motions."

Hmmm, poor choice of words there, Mark, very poor choice of words.....

[Hank]

David

In the article Mr. Oaten is quoted

"If I'd been brave enough when I had the home affairs brief, that's what I wanted to say, that we should abolish prisons.

Do you think that the fact he couldn’t move this idea and he was being pushed into irrelevance and losing the lection is an indication that in some weird way the system was working?

The small hope, and small it is, is that his opnions on politics are reflection him and not the system.

[David Duff]

Naughty, naughty, Julia - but well spotted!

Alas, Hank, I fear that loonies like Oaten are not just a reflection of the system - they *are* the system. Our only slight safeguard is that the loonies can't seem to agree on which potty policy to inflict on us.