An opinion piece by Coventry Socialist Party member Dave Griffiths

The following article is by Dave Griffiths, a longstanding member of the Socialist Party in Coventry. We welcome feedback on this article and ask that if you agree, to consider joining the Socialist Party. Please complete the form at the bottom of the page.

No wonder people are becoming more cynical.

A multi-millionaire government mouthpiece/minister only too keen to get on TV to denounce people on benefits for ‘dependency’ discovered he had ‘mistakenly” been heating his stables out of MP’s ‘expenses’!

Imagine what might befall the pensioner claiming she had mistakenly left her gas fire on over the winter but couldn’t afford to pay the bill? Or someone ‘mistakenly’ took a benefit they weren’t entitled to. But we’re meant to accept his ‘mistake’.

Meanwhile, an ex Labour minister admits in court fiddling his expenses.

Government ministers who cynically used the crisis at Stafford hospital to argue our NHS was in crisis so they could introduce more cuts and privatisation are still refusing to staff wards adequately when it is as plain as the nose on your face from the Stafford report that staffing levels affect patient care.

The Royal College of Nursing made ‘Freedom of Information’ requests that revealed that spending cuts have led to a shortage of 20,000 nurses. No wonder government refuses to adequately staff hospital wards. This hidden workforce crisis had been “missed” by government figures. For “missed” read ‘hidden’.

The other night, celebrity ‘stars’ on TV told me with their sincerest faces just how much another few of my pounds would help people. The same celebrities with tax arrangements that ensured they didn’t pay huge sums to the public purse that they should have.

In the last year my bank was almost broken by someone who seemingly knew more about drugs than banking. He nearly broke my bank the Cooperative.

Now, I don’t share the view that we get the ‘leaders’ we deserve.

We’re getting the leaders that fit the rotten system we’re in. A system based on exploitation, rip-off and short term gain is breeding exactly the rotten establishment we have, an establishment who as the News of the World ‘hacking’ trials show, from journalists, to ministers, to police and MI5 are all closely interlinked and even related.

As the rich are getting ever richer while ordinary Joe’s like us pay for the crisis, they feel they can get away with their arrogance and scandalous management of things.

The antics of ‘our’ elite disgust most of us. If we’re to stop it we need an economy and society owned by us, and democratically run by us. With no special privilege for those put in charge. That’s what a socialist society would offer.

And in a week of news laden with rotten cynicism, there was one shining light. In America a socialist won an historic election victory. Working people, offered a credible fighting socialist alternative, supported it. To build that alternative here should be the mission of us all.