The naive search for an honest politician

Unfortunately Spain has always been associated with corrupt politicians. No one appears to be surprised at the latest revelations affecting the PSOE and anyone who expresses shock is considered to be naive. All politicians are corrupt - what did you expect?

This assumption, however, makes a joke of the whole democratic process. So do we go and vote in elections already taking it for granted that the names on the list we are putting in the ballot box are likely to snaffle some public funds as soon as they get the chance? Are we voting for the party's list of candidates who we think will carry out their corrupt practice in the most discreet and elegant fashion?

The other option of course is simply not to vote; I wonder how much of the abstention figure is an active protest at corruption in politics, and how much corresponds to people who just can't be bothered. Perhaps the expression "Why vote, they're all corrupt anyway" is a useful excuse to justify not turning up at the ballot box.

Well, at risk of being considered the most naive journalist in the country, I like, even need, to think that people are wrong. I want this latest scandal to remain limited to just three bad eggs who found their way into a government and have now left their former colleagues facing the music.

Like Pedro Sánchez or not, his reasons for not resigning make sense. If a politician is really in their job to make policies that will improve the lives of the ordinary people in the country, then it's understandable that they'll be reluctant to stand down even though their colleagues have been found to be up to their eyes in corrupt practice. There is work still to be done and election promises to keep. And although it's easy to forget, that is what they were voted in to do - to make policies and pass laws to the benefit of the general public.

Santos Cerdán, Koldo García and José Luis Ábalos were, according to the Guardia Civil report, taking bribes from companies keen to secure lucrative public contracts. Cerdán, who was the Socialist party's head of organisation, has been sent to prison to prevent him from destroying evidence. The three of them, and possibly more, shared the illicit income.

I know a politician's salary is not as high as a business executive's but greed is an ugly thing. None of them appeared to need the extra cash to survive; we don't know what they spent it on but could they really enjoy their treats, knowing how they had been obtained?

There goes the naivety again: the assumption that people have a conscience.

Honesty, transparency, trustworthiness, sincerity, fairness, accountability: is that really too much to ask of our politicians? Rather depressingly, it seems it is.