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The recent revelations of the British Shadow Chancellor George Osborne meeting a Russian Billionaire off the Island of Corfu raised much discussion in the media and broadsheets.
Osborne has been accused of soliciting donations from a foreign actor, which is illegal under British law. This put the Tories in a difficult position, with one of its key figureheads subject to calls for resignation from some quarters.
If this wasn’t embarrassing enough for the Tories, there have been reports that David Cameron held a meeting with the media magnet Rupert Murdoch again on a multi-million pound yacht off the coast of a Mediterranean island. To make the situation worse, it was reported that Cameron’s flights to meet Murdoch had been paid for by Murdoch, raising questions over Cameron’s own judgement.
The Tories have had a few bad weeks, with the situation deteriorating further when it was revealed that a leading advisor of Ukrainian Oligarch, another billionaire, was funding the office of Neville-Jones, the shadow security minister. All of these incidents and revelations have undermined Tory attempts to rid an image of sleaze and corruption, which plagued the Tories during the 1980s and 1990s.
Importantly, these secret and backdoor meetings have raised once again the influence of the wealthy over politicians, and the ability of wealth to influence legislation. If true, this no doubt undermines democracy’s claim, with the concept of people sovereignty being cast aside as the rich and wealthy access politicians and influence through donations and courting on exotic islands and yachts.
This all plays into the growing political apathy and the perception that the political system is not representative of the average person on the streets of the UK. Clearly, the average person by no means has the ability to be part of Cameron’s exclusive funding dinners or to invite politicians to yachts off the coast of the Mediterranean.
The remedies presented are superficial, with calls for tighter funding regulation and calls for politicians not to directly solicit donations but to pass on information to party and treasurers who can make contact to raise party funds.
More fundamentally, however, the values and the construct of the political system will make the courting of billionaires and the wealthy an ongoing occurrence rather than an exception. The values of expediency and Machiavellianism, which underscore much of western politics, will ensure that the relationship between the rich and politicians will continue, with politicians looking for funding and backers as a means to ensure electoral success.
Additionally, the wealthy have had a major role in western polities every since the enlightenment, with capital integrated into governmental behaviour and functions; big business and capital have long been embedded with government. This can be clearly seen in the recent US presidency elections, with the huge amounts of money raised by the presidential candidates being a key asset in securing electoral success.
Therefore, it is the political values that need to be questioned if Western politics is really going to escape the dark cloud of sleaze and corruption, which has tainted it for so long.
This is the challenge which faces western politics, rather than hiding the key issues through superficial remedies and solutions which adds more bureaucracy rather than a real solution to an endemic problem.
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