Trusting politicians

I T's official, we no longer trust our politicians. This alarming development is evidently clear over Iraq. In Spain, where opposition to any strike on Iraq is running at about 80 percent of the population, the ruling Partido Popular is considering taking out a whole series of advertisements in the media saying why the government is siding with George W. Bush. In Britain, Tony Blair has tried unsuccessfully to convince the British public and despite a series of high profile interviews, opposition to any strike on Iraq continues to grow. Even the leader of the Balearic government, Francesc Antich, has been criticised by sceptics who claim that his opposition to the war has more to do with the ballot box than any real pacifist vision. In other words our elected leaders are no longer convincing us. This is a sad time for democracy. Millions of people who voted for Tony Blair because they felt that the country would be in safe hands, have turned against him on Iraq and are openly questioning the PM's motives. A similar state of affairs has happened in Spain. Both Blair and Aznar have large majorities which should mean that the majority of the country have full faith in them. This is not the case. As far as I am concerned there is no greater issue than Iraq and both Prime Ministers are being openly questioned and ridiculed. Unless the opinion polls are completely wrong then both Aznar and Blair have serious problems because the electorate appears to have lost faith in them. It is difficult to decide who has betrayed who; were Blair and Aznar elected to rule as they think right or were they elected to be ruled by the majority of public opinion?