Spelman should go, and Hain should be fitted-out for a prisoners uniform. Will it happen, I doubt it. Do I care, or am I just fed-up with the whole sorry bunch of under-performers? You guess….

The facts are the facts and incompetence or incoherence will out as events process through the cycle.

If Boris hadn’t become mayor Ray Lewis wouldn’t have come under scrutiny.

If the government hadn’t passed the FoI act it wouldn’t have been forced to release details of expenses etc etc.

There is never any valid excuse for the blatant abuse of public office or public money, whether by elected or unelected officials – it is all part of making society more accountable.

So whether it is the MoD or the person in charge of compliance to the regulations (Spelman) it is in both our and their own interests to enforce the rules to raise the standard of the game.

Perhaps we need to look at use by / best before dates that supermarkets put on. working in the food industry, I am aware that the dates are put significantly lower so the dates come and go and consumers will throw them out and buy new thus spending more.

Also, heard a report today that one govt department threw out 20 tonnes of food waste last year. Sounds like the govt should practice what they preach

Complete exclusion of DKs/others (and equally their aggregation or use of equivalent weighting) discounts this factor far too easily in my view, which lets the parties of government and opposition off the hook.

It is a similar argument as that regarding turnout, as both can only offer any conclusions when calculations are measured over a long enough timescale.

Are there any offers of insight as to why the total polling share of the 3 major parties has fallen so far in 15 years except as a result of sleaze?

I’ll try and collate numbers, but from a brief look at don’t knows there doesn’t seem to be any obvious trend. In YouGov polls around 13-14% normally say don’t know

Of course what forms peopls opinions is the result of a mixed picture of issues and it take a while for the accumulation of publicity on a subject to stick to one or other party.

The 10p tax debacle took about three weeks to feed though wage packets after it became law at the start of the tax year and began to hit the poll ratings of Labour, and it has taken more than a decade to ‘decontaminate’ the tory brand on a variety of issues, so I suspect a trade-off between the least-worst aspects is currently in play in the public mind when we come decide for ourselves.

As I’ve said previously the growth in the DK/other statistic is the significant factor which best shows the hightening disillusion regarding standards in public life – up from 1-3% at the start of this site’s record to 10-11% currently.

I think it would be informative for Anthony to start showing the status of UKIP/Green/BNP popularity or at least differentiate between other and don’t knows in this light – the politicians might then have some real data with which to inform a practical response.

link

People always think the Liberals are the least corrupt party- if it was a big issue, surely voters would flock to the least sleazy and least corrupt party. I think the deeper truth is that people believe, and are fairly comfortable with, the idea that most mainstream parties and politicians are corrupt to lesser or greater extents.

Surely the electorate of Italy knew Bellisconi was corrupt but they still voted for him!