Letters to the Editor - Elections are just a sham

Published: 29 April, 2010

• WE’RE all in this together, are we? 
Not just the bankers and speculators and the politicians who failed to regulate them. Which means we, the taxpayers, bail them out again, corruption is condoned and thus continues to flourish. 
The final insult!
This is nothing new. 
In the 1850s Charles Dickens spoke out against investment and speculation as corrupt practices and said that the House of Commons was “corrupted by self-interest, bribery and collusion.” 
George Bernard Shaw dubbed it the “House of Hypocrisy” with its “sham democratic routines”.
The legal term for this is malfeasance: evil-doing, especially official misconduct (Oxford Dictionary). 
We seem to have forgotten this word.
Until parliamentary democracy and the electoral system are overhauled root and branch, elections will continue to be a sham. 
So cast your vote and, as Daniel Defoe said, “Ship with the devil, and you must sail with the devil.” 
Or should we all jump ship?
NICK GORDON
Highgate Road, NW5