Our politicians have feet of clay – just like the rest of us

The electorate want gods above them and are disappointed to find humans who turn out to be just as fallible as themselves.’

That’s a line from a bestselling ‘tell-all’ book called Diary of an MP’s Wife written by – as the cover suggests – an MP’s wife, called Sasha Swire.

Up to the publication of her book, few outside of her gilded cage had heard of Sasha. The daughter of a Government Minister, she went on to marry Hugo Swire MP, who ended up as a Junior Minister in Northern Ireland.

The book got a lot of coverage because Sasha isn’t a woman blessed with the gene for introspection – and thus her revelation that her former pal, and former Prime Minister, David Cameron, once told her he longed to drag her into the bushes attracted considerable coverage.

Nobody is spared the wrath of Sasha’s tongue and that sort of indiscretion tends to make headlines – and indeed sell the books – but our opinionated diarist actually has far more strings to her bow.

It was her observation on the standards the electorate demand from our politicians that struck a chord – because it’s the same here as across the water.

We demand standards from others that we’d do well to impose on ourselves; we leave no room for failure without condemnation; no margin for error; no room for second chances.

And on one level, we’re entitled to demand higher standards from those who receive our tax money – but if we keep insisting they remain purer than driven snow, we’ll eventually be left with no one at all.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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