Politicians deserve our cynicism

What do people usually say about politicians? “They’re all the same.” “They never do anything for anybody.” “They’re only in it for themselves.” None of this is particularly accurate. Jeremy Corbyn and Jacob Rees-Mogg are alike only in that each of them has four limbs and belongs to the male branch of the species. Nye Bevan did something for countless numbers of citizens when he founded the NHS. As for politicians being in it for themselves, nobody would choose the House of Commons as a route to untold riches. Not even Nigel Farage did this, though he’s certainly piled up riches as a result of politics, and some of them do seem to be untold. Most people don’t make such remarks simply because they’re stupid. If the government threatened to drive a motorway through their back garden, they wo