Good manners in public life
Various comments from council meetings at the opposite end of the country in the past few days have set me to thinking about the importance of civility and good manners in public life.
There is always a temptation for someone considering a current problem, to compare it with some real or mythical past age when such problems supposedly did not exist, and conclude either that the younger generation is dreadful or that the country is going to the dogs. I will resist that temptation, because I can remember when I first got involved in politics at the age of 17 I heard some pretty extreme examples of rudeness between politicians, and older councillors lamenting that there was much more hostility between the parties than when they were younger. Come to that, as a small boy I remember hearing my mother tell my father that there were “a lot of babies running the country” after an exchange between Ted Heath and Harold Wilson which concluded with the leader of the opposition saying that “an insult from the Prime Minister is a compliment to any self-respecting member of this House.”
But although I am not convinced that the overall standard of manners in public life is getting worse, I am entirely convinced that it could and should be better.
What started this train of thought was a council meeting marked by several instances of gross incivility. One councillor responded to a motion I had moved seeking to limit the amount paid in councillor’s allowances, not with a real discussion of the merits of the case, but with a personal attack on myself which was nasty enough to draw a rebuke from the mayor. Those people who have seen the way the three political parties operate will not be at all surprised to learn that the individual making this attack was a Liberal Democrat.
The last time I had been on the receiving end of a similar piece of venom, also from a Lib/Dem, was about seventeen years ago, and on that occasion the then Mayor was sufficiently upset to tell the councillor concerned to finish speaking. I have no criticism of the current Mayor for not doing that to the person who attacked me this week; it is a matter of judgement how severely to respond. If the threshold were set at the level which required such a response he would have had to terminate speeches from one Conservative, one Labour, and three Lib/Dem councillors. Indeed, the Mayor did order one member of the council’s cabinet – yes, a third Lib/Dem – to sit down and stop speaking after he responded to a question from a member of the public by cross-examining the questioner.
At the other end of the country, there was a very unfair attack on the current Mayor of Copeland following a meeting of Cumbria County Council. The National Code of local government conduct requires councillors who serve at more than one level of government, such as Borough and County, to reconsider an issue each time it comes up and to do so from the viewpoint of the whole area covered by the body they are currently sitting on. In other words, County Councillor Norman Clarkson is not just encouraged but required to avoid being influenced by the fact that he is also Mayor of Copeland while voting on an issue at the County Council. I was very disappointed to see him criticised in this week’s local papers for not breaking ranks with his county group on a difficult issue affecting Copeland. If the attack on Councillor Clarkson was meant to imply that he should have given special treatment as a county councillor to Copeland, he was effectively being attacked for not doing something which the code of conduct signed by all councillors specifically forbids.
I wish I could say this was the only time I had seen the mayoralty of a Borough or City dragged into politics, but sadly it happens too often and has done throughout my time in public life.
But if we want to make politics relevant to a greater range of people, then politicians of all parties must make more effort to treat one another and the public with more politeness. Even – to use a current buzzword – with respect.
There is always a temptation for someone considering a current problem, to compare it with some real or mythical past age when such problems supposedly did not exist, and conclude either that the younger generation is dreadful or that the country is going to the dogs. I will resist that temptation, because I can remember when I first got involved in politics at the age of 17 I heard some pretty extreme examples of rudeness between politicians, and older councillors lamenting that there was much more hostility between the parties than when they were younger. Come to that, as a small boy I remember hearing my mother tell my father that there were “a lot of babies running the country” after an exchange between Ted Heath and Harold Wilson which concluded with the leader of the opposition saying that “an insult from the Prime Minister is a compliment to any self-respecting member of this House.”
But although I am not convinced that the overall standard of manners in public life is getting worse, I am entirely convinced that it could and should be better.
What started this train of thought was a council meeting marked by several instances of gross incivility. One councillor responded to a motion I had moved seeking to limit the amount paid in councillor’s allowances, not with a real discussion of the merits of the case, but with a personal attack on myself which was nasty enough to draw a rebuke from the mayor. Those people who have seen the way the three political parties operate will not be at all surprised to learn that the individual making this attack was a Liberal Democrat.
The last time I had been on the receiving end of a similar piece of venom, also from a Lib/Dem, was about seventeen years ago, and on that occasion the then Mayor was sufficiently upset to tell the councillor concerned to finish speaking. I have no criticism of the current Mayor for not doing that to the person who attacked me this week; it is a matter of judgement how severely to respond. If the threshold were set at the level which required such a response he would have had to terminate speeches from one Conservative, one Labour, and three Lib/Dem councillors. Indeed, the Mayor did order one member of the council’s cabinet – yes, a third Lib/Dem – to sit down and stop speaking after he responded to a question from a member of the public by cross-examining the questioner.
At the other end of the country, there was a very unfair attack on the current Mayor of Copeland following a meeting of Cumbria County Council. The National Code of local government conduct requires councillors who serve at more than one level of government, such as Borough and County, to reconsider an issue each time it comes up and to do so from the viewpoint of the whole area covered by the body they are currently sitting on. In other words, County Councillor Norman Clarkson is not just encouraged but required to avoid being influenced by the fact that he is also Mayor of Copeland while voting on an issue at the County Council. I was very disappointed to see him criticised in this week’s local papers for not breaking ranks with his county group on a difficult issue affecting Copeland. If the attack on Councillor Clarkson was meant to imply that he should have given special treatment as a county councillor to Copeland, he was effectively being attacked for not doing something which the code of conduct signed by all councillors specifically forbids.
I wish I could say this was the only time I had seen the mayoralty of a Borough or City dragged into politics, but sadly it happens too often and has done throughout my time in public life.
But if we want to make politics relevant to a greater range of people, then politicians of all parties must make more effort to treat one another and the public with more politeness. Even – to use a current buzzword – with respect.
Comments
I would like to hear more about your ideas on manners in the UK, because I think that manners in the US have declined a lot recently. I was encouraged by your comment that you didn't think that manners have declined in the UK. Can you tell me what you ae basing that opinion on? Thanks.
Frank Rio
Specifically, there were too many people who were were very rude to one another when I first became involved in public life nearly thirty years ago, and there still are!
There were plenty of others who were much more polite, and again, there still are.
But I would not want you to think I am claiming that this impression is in any way scientific.