Criminal lawyers are often asked how they can represent a defendant they think is guilty, and doctors are often asked why they treat patients who will not help themselves get better. Both answer that their private views are irrelevant: there is a professional duty to be carried out, and it will be done well regardless. Can this same ‘professional detachment’ reasoning be applied to politicians to protect their private views from public scrutiny? Do the current UK privacy laws allow for such an argument?
MPs are now getting ready to take up their new roles in Parliament. Increasingly, we are seeing career politicians, whose party affiliation may have been strategically selected as the best career option, rather than as the best fit with their beliefs. If you were to ask an MP how he could promote his party’s political views on tax, immigration or hospitals when his private views are different, would a politician answer in the same way as a lawyer or doctor?
