A mixture of anger, sadness, frustration and a tiny bit of envy may characterise how local politicians currently regard Members of Parliament. ‘Expensesgate' is set to run and run, and will undoubtedly lead to changes now, and will determine the fate of some MPs in the future. The good news in all this is that, despite a poor press, the public do seem able to differentiate between those who they see as having their snouts firmly in the trough, and those doing hard work as ward councillors. Whereas, only around 20% of the public have ever trusted politicians to tell the truth, the figure for local councillors is always better – around 38% believe they do – ahead of local government managers 34% themselves. And more people say councillors do a good job (45%) than disagree (27%). But politicians of all sorts are likely to suffer in the latest fallout. We asked people a few years ago whether they felt local councillors were acting mostly in the interests of their local area, their own interests, or their party's interests. The bad news is that only one-quarter felt local councillors were acting in their local area's interest (25%), and more believed they acted mostly either in their party's (32%) or their own (27%) interests. But, perhaps we can seek solace in the fact that, even before the latest debacle, 55% thought MPs put their own interests first, and only 6% that they considered their constituents first. How much the reforms which now follow will change things is unclear. In August 1944, as a unity UK Government fought the Nazis, only 36% thought politicians were acting in the interests of the country, and 57% that they were only interested in themselves or their party. Some things never change.
