We are hapless victims of political class

Regarding Lou Gogan’s letter (Apr 2), it is salutary to see how politics has always tended to attract people who are hell-bent on milking the State and who, too readily, succumb to dodgy deals aimed at improving their lot at the expense of the citizens.

Around 500 BC the Greeks, who were the inventors of democracy, became disillusioned with the quality of their leaders; their main contention was that they were not really concerned with truth but with their own self-interest, exploiting the resources of the State for their personal advantage.

The philosophers identified the problem.

The young men who came forward for public life already had more than their fair share of the world’s wealth and a lot of time on their hands.

To fill the vacuum in their lives they turned to nurturing a lust for power. They could afford to pay for the services of the best sophists, the Greek version of the spin doctors. The sophists’ job was to teach aspiring politicians how to persuade the citizens that they were the right people to lead them.

The young men acquired a way with words that sat easily with their venal disposition.

They learned how to be pragmatic but not principled. Sadly, the citizens were disappointed with those they elected as they invariably fell far short of what they had led the people to expect of them.

This all sounds familiar.

We are condemned to be hapless victims of a political class. We have had enough of it.

Philip O’Neill

Edith Road

Oxford