We’re all sick of the MPs’ expenses scandal. It’s boring, undermines our beliefs in British fair play and drives people away from politics. The best thing to happen when the MPs open their letters is to accept them, pay up and move on. I understand those MPs who want to stand and fight against being told to pay back thousands of pounds they were originally told were legitimate expenses but that’s the price that must be paid for not fixing the system earlier. It’s nothing compared to the price we’re all going to pay for the collapsed economy, which could also have been sorted years ago.

There is a bigger story, however; the story of the lack of responsibility throughout society. Britain stands or falls on the efforts of all its people. There is no such thing as a self-made man or woman. Whether you are a multi-millionaire or surviving on benefits, you owe it to Britain and generations of its citizens that you’re alive and fed and sheltered and educated. You owe it to Britain to pay back that investment, whether by volunteering for something, working hard, complying with its laws, paying all the taxes you’re supposed to or by voting for something you believe in. There is no excuse, at all for sitting back and saying “it’s got nothing to do with me” or “well, why doesn’t the government do something about it?” Usually, the government is the last lot you want to sort things out.

I’ve been attacked recently for getting involved in exposing shoddy behaviour by local government, as though that’s the way life is and there’s no point trying to stop it. Well, I’m sorry but that kind of defeatism impoverishes us all. We are all flawed and I’m no less likely to fail than the next man, but that doesn’t mean morals don’t matter and that we should just ignore it when people do wrong. We have a collective responsibility to fix things when they need it.

As the MPs’ expenses scandal shows, if you ignore little problems, they soon turn rotten. The purpose of democracy is to give us government that best reflects the dominant view of the people. As long as people don’t vote; don’t stand up for what they believe to be right; don’t hold their chosen leaders to account, we open the doors for incompetence and corruption.

Neville Farmer

Parliamentary Candidate, Wyre Forest Liberal Democrats