If you haven’t already listened to Radio 5 Live’s interview with Sir Nicholas Winterton, which followed on the heels of a similar interview with Total Politics, have a listen to that BBC interview now.

The story which broke on Thursday was still rolling two days later, as I woke to a debate on my local radio station asking “should MPs travel first class?” It won’t surprise you that when asked the question in the context of Winterton’s outburst, most callers were of the opinion that MPs should be made to travel standard class. In fact, sod standard class, they should be dragged on a rope attached to the back of the train while working people queue up to use the toilet (between stations, naturally).

Yet, as someone who commutes five days per week in standard class, I find Winterton’s point uncontroversial when examined dispassionately.

A private environment

First – it is in the nature of many people (myself included) to look over the shoulder of people who are reading / using a computer, in any environment. We are natural nosey parkers. This is something I lamented last month while checking my inbox on the gay social networking site Thingbox, whilst on a train. (Those of a sensitive disposition should note that the screenshot contains some rather close to the bone humour, and, ahem, strident language. I have concealed the identities of the guilty.)

In first class, most train companies put three seats in to a space which would take five seats in standard class. Many customers will have their own table. Just as a point of logistics it is harder to rubber-neck the papers / screens of your fellow travellers. It could also be argued that there is a culture of discretion.  As MPs often help those who are in the most dire of straits, we should consider whether casework correspondence in particular could be read in standard class.

A productive environment

Every now and then a day comes along when every hour counts – and on those days I confess even I, pleb of plebs, have forked out the extra £20 to upgrade to first class. Why? Because you’re pretty much guaranteed a seat, it’s quieter, and you’re able to spread papers out in a way that is impossible in standard. Stephen Nolan was wrong to say “there are tables in standard class”, the trains used on my commute are one of many not to have tables in standard.

Outside of commuter peak times, Winterton is also right to say that there is more noise and activity, with families and others using the service – this tends not to be the case in the toff carriages.

These things are uncontroversial facts – they’re the reason first class exists, and why so many businesses pay a premium to allow their senior staff to travel in this way. So do I think that MPs (many of whom have to take long train journeys at least twice a week to and from their constituencies) should be able to travel in an environment where they can work on sensitive issues with a clear mind? Yes. Let them eat complimentary cake.

When should the privilege be revoked?

Where Sir Nicholas went wrong was in how he said what he said, and the attitudes behind what he said. Winterton has clearly forgotten that first class travel is part of the privilege of being elected, and not a God-given right handed down to him by virtue of his being a knight of the realm. His apparent view that no-one works in standard class is farcical, and implicitly screams just how out of touch with the real world he is. Particularly pernicious were his constant references to the millions who use standard class every year as “they” and “them.”

Sir Nicholas’s attitudes are a born out of a sense of privilege, fed by the closeted world of many MPs. Winterton can stroll under the road from Portcullis House to the Houses of Parliament without ever leaving the secure zone. In New Palace Yard a taxi (on expenses, naturally) can be called to whisk him to Euston station, and he can stroll across the concourse to his first class seat in splendid isolation. His ticket is free, the food is complimentary, and at the other end another free taxi will take him home. Only the most modest of people would be able to live like that for the best part of forty years while avoiding a superiority complex. Perhaps it is time for Sir Nick particularly, in his last few weeks at Westminster, to squeeze in to a seat in coach and reconnect with the people who put him in parliament in the first place.

The steady erosion of trust in politics and politicians, even though we know past trust has been abused, will never deliver the parliament we all hope for. My own preference on the thorny issue of travel, in what some will see as a stereotypically wishy-washy liberal answer, is for the new rules to expect that MPs should travel by standard class, but be able to upgrade to first class on a case by case basis when necessary, without question. MPs would be left to make their own choices – if not handling casework or other sensitive material, they can ride in coach with the rest of us. Some will play along, others will play the system. Coupled with continued transparency of expenses, we can hold our local member to account for their choice. That’s a system that seems to me to be responsible, fair, and realistic.