UK democracy has evolved over centuries and continues to do so. However, at present there is a more urgent need for some new ideas in the political sphere. There have been a lot of changes in the last twenty to thirty years and the political system is struggling to keep pace with both public expectations and the needs of government.
For the most part, the institutional framework still serves the purpose for which it is designed. Rather, the problem lies with the closed nature of the apparatus that supports democratically elected representatives. These parties have become isolated from the electorate and there is a growing professional class of politicians who set out to become politicians and have little or no experience outside of the narrow political sphere.
Gaining electoral success requires a lot of resources and contacts with groups such as the media. This has further “professionalised” the business of politics and made it more difficult for people form all walks of life to enter into this field. This has impoverished politics as the decision makers are now drawn from a narrow pool. Many are lawyers but the dreaded PPE (Politics, Psychology and Economics) has become the de facto degree to gain entrance to this profession.
Such groups are self reinforcing as they do not meet people from other walks of life and tend to form a group that works to exclude others from taking part. At an immediate practical level, this means that politicians do not bring areas of expertise from other professions or trades. Many of the frequent government IT procurement problems have stemmed from the fact that ultimate decision makers have an incomplete understanding of how large IT systems work. Had the cabinet of past governments had an IT professional amongst them it would have been less likely that flawed plans would have been given approval.
In the past the major political parties had a mechanism to allow for their members to come from different walks of life. The Labour party for example used to use it's links with the Trades Union movement to recruit MPs and such like. The Tories would use local businesses to get members. Andrew Neill did a documentary highlighting just how professionalised Westminster had become. It is also less common for senior politicians to have worked their way up through Local government either.
What is needed now is for a concerted effort for ordinary people to stand for election as independents. This will be particularly well suited to local politics where local issues are at the forefront of people's concerns. However, it can also be made to work for parliamentary elections and even the European parliament.
Independents would also be less influenced by big money as their campaigns typically require a fraction of the money needed by mainstream party political candidates which will mean they will not be so strongly influenced by vested interests.
It is now much easier for independents to mount a campaign as the so called “Social Media” provides a very efficient and cost effective way of getting a message out to a wider audience. It takes a substantial PR team to get wide coverage in newspapers and television but anyone can set up a blog and then promote it via Facebook.
The time is ripe for a new style of politician and independents have an opportunity to affect the way a borough, county, constituency and even a country is run out of all proportion to their numbers. It would only take a few independent councillors to break down the stale deadlock in so many councils where local interests are ignored for party political ones. An independent Mayor could bring together all the differing threads of the representatives to really benefit the city over which they preside. Even a few independent MPs could bring a different perspective to decision making in parliament.
No comments:
Post a Comment