Writing in The Times today, Dr Rowan Williams warned that democracy was being threatened by the way the revelations had been handled.
“The issues raised by the huge controversy over MPs' expenses are as grave as could be for our parliamentary democracy, and urgent action is needed to restore trust. It is good that all parties are recognising this," he said.
“But many will now be wondering whether the point has not been adequately made; the continuing systematic humiliation of politicians itself threatens to carry a heavy price in terms of our ability to salvage some confidence in our democracy."
He criticised the “no rules were broken” mentality that he said was evidenced not only in the MPs’ expenses scandal, but also recent headlines over bankers’ pensions and the suspension of two peers from the Lords.
“Integrity is about what we value in ourselves or our work for its own sake - what's worth making sacrifices for, what we're glad to have done simply for the kind of act it is,” he wrote.
“If I do something just because I'm told to, or if I hold back from something simply because of fear that I shall be caught out, it's a very different business.”
He continued: “It has nothing to do with that sense of being glad to have done something … Without that sense, we always slip back towards the shabby calculation of what we can get away with.”
Dr Williams warned that better regulation could not be the whole answer.
“We talk about people's vocations most readily when we see them clearly doing things that don't bring easy rewards,” he wrote. “But if the culture is such that regulation takes the place of virtue, we shouldn't be too surprised if public figures show signs of the virus and take refuge in the ‘no rules were broken’ tactic.”
He concluded by saying it would be a “tragedy” if the present scandal brought an “end to any confidence that politics and public service could and should be a calling worthy of the most generous instincts”.
