The 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal will be remembered for the shocking stories of how some MPs misused or abused their allowances. But the scandal’s long-term impact on voters’ confidence in politicians may be less marked. Parliament’s prestige was undoubtedly dented, but levels of trust in politicians were already low and had been falling for some time. Politicians are unloved across the liberal democratic world, but, as cross-national survey data show, they have become markedly more unloved in Britain in recent years. If anything, the events of 2009 merely reinforced an existing ‘antipolitics’ mood in British society (Stoker 2006).
This article, based on the authors’ research, explores the gap between politicians’ and the public’s understanding of ‘political ethics’.
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