I had intended to write this column about something else entirely this week, but then the latest travel adventures of Ian Paisley set me thinking.
How rare is proper accountability in politics?
How often does a politician speak to you the public, either in recorded or newspaper interview, through social media or even standing on your doorstep and make you think, there goes a person who puts their duty as a public representative and servant of the people above all else?
There are those who put themselves forward for public office out of a genuine desire to make positive change for their country and community, although it seems that the system often eats them up.
Following the latest BBC Spotlight investigation into Ian Paisley’s 2016 holiday to Maldives, having just returned from his latest suspension after not declaring two holidays to Sri Lanka, you’d think well that’s the North Antrim MP for the high jump this time.
In reality that is probably far from the case.
Spotlight claims that, like his holiday to Sri Lanka, Mr Paisley lobbied on behalf of the government of the Maldives, a country with a questionable human rights record.
While there in February 2016 with two other MPs from an All-Party Parliamentary Group he visited a prison where opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed had been held, and described the conditions as ‘quite luxurious’.
I’m not sure how luxurious South Asian prisons are having never visited one, but I’m sure it wasn’t a patch on the resort owned by former government minister Hussain Hilmy, where Mr Paisley stayed when he returned to the Indian Ocean islands in October of that year with his family.
In reality the DUP are unlikely to take any real action against Paisley, the failure to even convince ten per cent of his constituency to sign a recall petition to oust him after his last globetrotting incident will have just embolded him.
In a statement yesterday they said the party officers “will want to consider these very serious matters” which is true, adding they are “mindful of the high standards we require of elected representatives”, which remains to be seen.
The party’s Westminster focus is currently on conspiring with Tory hard line Brexiteers against the prime minister, and for that they need every vote they can get, that includes the controversial MP for North Antrim.
The son of the party’s founder, the younger Paisley is a very different man from his firebrand father, and I don’t mean that as a compliment.
But like his father he is extremely popular in his native constituency.
This last week also saw the return of Sinn Féin’s Barry McElduff, who was selected to stand in next year’s local government elections for the party.
Comparing Paisley’s globetrotting around the world visiting countries with questionable human rights records to McElduff’s antics is not exactly like for like.
One seems motivated by self-gain while the other by a need to be constantly noticed. Neither are great qualities in a politician.
When McElduff says he didn’t mean any offence when he stood with a Kingsmill loaf on his head on the anniversary of the atrocity at Kingsmill, we only have his word.
It mattered not for the victims were offended and perception in this case outweighed intention.
Sinn Féin are aware of McElduff’s personal popularity in his rural and at times socially conservative constituency.
The announcement by Peadar Tóibín, who has been a Teachta Dála for the Meath West constituency since the 2011, to run independent candidates in the north will have rung alarm bells for Sinn Féin.
Tóibin, who left the party last month, has announced he is to form a new All Ireland anti abortion party.
He has already recruited Declan McGuinness, brother of the late Martin McGuinness along with Anne and Francie Brolly.
The rise of Catholic conservatism in Northern Ireland seems unlikely but that’s not to say at council level such big names with a very focused manifesto won’t cause significant problems for Sinn Féin.
Losing seats to Tóibin would be an unthinkable blow, losing them to unionists because of a split vote an even worse prospect.
It is this that seems to have brought McElduff back in from the cold.
The use of his profile to stave off a challenge from the new party of defectors and it seems he was only too happy to oblige.
Politics - for some it’s a vocation, for others a luxury vacation and for others it’s votes at any cost.
