Greedy Politicians And New Vestments

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According to his installation blog, Archbishop Nichols will be wearing new vestments which will become the normal ones for his use at Westminster on high days and holy days.

That's good news. It's odd, though, that none of the big guns in the Catholic blogosphere seems to have noticed it or thought it worthy of comment.

Even odder, though, is that nobody seems to think that the mire of filth in which the Palace of Westminster is engulfed seems worthy of comment. Perhaps the mire is beginning to drown out any other thought.

I have thought for a long time - since May 1997 as it happens - that the great "gift" of NuLabour to the United Kingdom would be the promotion of meretriciousness: the showily flashy: to the greatest of virtues, and I think I'm right.

The particular story being unveiled by the Telegraph comes from the fact that Whips seem to have told MPs since 1997 that salaries could not be seen to rise, but that "legitimate expenses" (nudge, nude, wink, wink) could be exploited to compensate. And, our MPs, who are our representatives, and who share the moral compass of the immense majority of those whom they represent, have engaged in claiming expenses purely because the money is available "within the rules".

I said "meretricious" above, because I get the feeling that those who have been set in authority over us couldn't give a toss. How come Mandelson got yet another chance, except for the fact that Brown guessed rightly that the number of people capable of being morally outraged in the UK these days has diminished sufficiently to let him do what he wants, and then claim the moral high ground for doing it.

Another metaphor: perhaps we ought to stay beneath our stones, and hope that nobody lifts them, and leave the vile, monstrous, slimy, inhabitants of the depths to wander through the world for the ruin of souls, leaving St Michael to deal with them.

I cannot remember ever feeling such a foreigner in my own country.