Old Sarum

William Pitt was a famous Prime Minister of Britain who architected Britain's military strategy against France in Europe and the Atlantic which led to British dominance. Pitt bought himself a seat in Old Sarum - an infamous rotten borough.

Arthur Herman writes;

[he] returned to England in 1710 an immensely rich man, and bought himself a seat in Parliament for Old Sarum, the most notorious rotten borough in Britain, with only seven voters. Old Pitt passed it onto his son, and his grandson William, who took it over in 1735. So William Pitt, the politician who would proclaim that Parliament's duty was to carry out "the will of the people" started his career by sitting for the old borough that epitomized what his followers would call Old Corruption.

Apparently when Old Sarum had eleven voters in 1831 none of them lived in the borough itself. That is extreme malapportionment.

adam: It\'s interesting: Pitt first made his name as a politician by refusing to enrich himself as Paymaster-General; ie, took an anti-corruption stand.
cam: It seems corruption was so endemic: at that time that evening having someone who was for minimal corruption made a huge difference. Herman credits Samuel Pepys as having a massive influence on the Royal Navy because, amongst other things, he was minimally corrupt. Apparently he toured the dockyards and made sure material was high quality, that builders had what they needed etc, chose the cheapest contractors rather than those that gave him kickbacks etc. So it meant the Royal Navy improved its fighting efficiency through his bureaucratic efficiency. Minimising corruption was part of that.

It is probably the same issues that many third-world nations face. Even minimising corruption has massive benefits.

cam
adam: Not just the third world: Think the Howard government will be punished for the AWB scandal? Voters only punish corruption when it\'s accompanied by ineffectiveness.
cam: Does that go back to your opinion: when Beattie was elected (two elections ago now?) that people will choose criminals over incompetence?

cam
adam: Pretty much $:

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