Doing Politics

Product Description

A dose of sense from the voice of parliamentary reason Throughout the expenses scandal & the lobbying scandal & all the other storms which have buffeted Parliament, Dr Tony Wright is the one MP who has consistently provided a measured, sane & sensible reaction to events. As Chair of the influential Public Administration Committee he has risen above party & partisan politics to offer a sometimes lone voice of reason. His new book considers the wider implications of the various political ructions & the public reaction to them, & argues that if we want to defend politics, then we also have to defend politicians: the class of people is intrinsic to the activity. Somebody has to do the messy business of accommodating conflicting demands & interests, choosing between competing options, negotiating unwelcome trade-offs, & taking responsibility for decisions that often represent the least worst course of action. That somebody is politicians. They give voice to our hopes, but they also, inevitably, feed our disappointments, even if their name is Obama. From one of our most erudite, intellectually rigorous yet sensible politicians, Doing Politics is just the book the nation needs. ' Tony Wright is firmly up there with the ace political observers like Walter Bagehot, R.H. Tawney & George Orwell'
- Lord Hennessy, The House Magazine