Faith in the System

For those of you who read the papers, or watch BBC News 24 on repeat whilst trying to figure out where their life went wrong, you'll be well aware that David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, has been jailed for 18 months for fiddling his expenses.

"Would I lie to you?"

Now, on some level we're supposed to feel sorry for David Chaytor. His lawyer has stated that he is a "broken man" who paid a "devastating price" for his dishonesty. A correspondent on BBC News said that his public career was now completely over. That same man said that public cynicism hurt democratic process and hopefully the jailing of Mr. Chaytor would go some way to restoring public confidence in our legislative body.

On the other hand, some could say that Chaytor got what he deserved, or perhaps even less than he deserved. As his sentence is less than four years and not related to violent or sexual crimes, Chaytor could be released in May, having served one third of his pittance in what would no doubt be the nicest jail in the country. There is a tendency amongst some critics of the government process to see all crime as absolute, and everything as black and white. Generally, I fall into this category sometimes, but looking at Chaytor, I find it hard to prescribe an apathetic approach to what he's done. Maybe it is because Chaytor's home is less than twenty miles away in Todmorden, or maybe it is because he is a product of Blair-era Labour, or maybe its simply because of what he's done.

David Chaytor defrauded the public for almost twenty-thousand pounds. His defence lawyer (who should probably go for a new career) said that:

"We submit that the sums he received, if he had gone about it transparently, honestly and frankly, he would have been entitled to every penny, if not more than he claimed,"

Basically, the best defence a high-flying city lawyer can come up with is essentially "If he had not broken the law and been caught, he would still be spending public money now, perfectly legally and probably in excess of what he stole."

Oh.

That's okay then.

While it is hard to be angry at a broken man with a ruined career and pending book deal (I'd wager), it is also hard to forgive someone whom so thoroughly lied and cheated. David Chaytor did not do the things he did from ideological motivation. He did not do them because he simply believed in some Machiavellian philosophy of doing evil in the name of the greater good. Chaytor did what he did because he was greedy. Because he was corrupt, and quite simply, because he didn't care. To Chaytor, his constituents were a joke. The people of Britain are a limitless resource into which he could dip, probably from not much more motivation than because he could.

But Mr. Lawyer does have a point.

Chaytor isn't a disease, he is a symptom. He is a product of a hierarchical, authoritarian process built on exploitation, greed, and deceit. Jailing Chaytor, for however long, won't restore my faith. Jailing the other MP's on trial won't win back any favour with me. Remember, these are the stupid ones. They are the ones who broke the law. There are over six hundred MP's who didn't break the law but still continue an inherently unfair system of illegitimate rule.

So maybe jailing Chaytor cheered you up. Maybe it didn't. I guess it doesn't really matter in the end. They're still laughing at us.