If you choose politics, don't complain about the politicking
I refer to public officials who elected or not, complain about duplicity, hypocrisy, back stabbing, unethical and weasely behaviour by their colleagues and in their working environment in general. According to one of your recent editions, one committee chairman reportedly recently complained about politicians politicking.
Don’t these people know that if you choose to enter the political environment, that’s what you sign up for? It’s bad enough on the campaign trail. When I ran for election in 2008 I found the campaign tactics of those rival candidates who were already in the States to be, and how can I put this politely, well below the ethical standard which would earn a boy Scout a badge. ‘Sly nudging’ was the order of the day I thought.
I don’t know whether to detest politicians who continually succeed in being re-elected for what seems to go on behind the scenes or not.
Voting for things they don’t want, looking the other way, discrediting their political adversaries by hook or by crook, sometimes misleading; these are the necessary skills of a political survivor, and even then they are not always enough. It’s like ‘laying up’ in golf. The priority is to live to fight another day.
Of course we all know that this situation is not right, but it’s not exactly new either. It’s been going on since politics began. Power struggles in private sector companies are possibly even worse. It’s one of the reasons I choose to be a sole trader, even if it does mean paying even more in social security than in income tax.
A public official who complains about bullying or underhand behaviour by his or her colleagues is rather like a property owner buying a house in a sewer and then complaining about the smell.
Matt Waterman
Flat 2, 3 Burnt Lane, St Peter Port, GY1 1HL