The Bishops of the Anglican Church have written a pastoral
letter. I haven’t read it yet: maybe it
will be read to us at church tomorrow morning, but if so there will be a few
late lunches as it’s 52 pages long.
Pending reading or hearing it read I’ll content myself with
comments on the Guardian’s headline, “Democracy
is failing, bishops tell politicians.”
Well, if that sums up what they say, I think they are
absolutely right. In my view democracy
is failing for the following reasons:
Politicians aren’t
just seen to lie, they really do, routinely.
Labour promised not to introduce student tuition fees, they
did, and then increased them. We Liberal
Democrats pledged ourselves to vote against any further rise, but we didn’t. The Tories promised no top down re-organisation
of the NHS, then within weeks of coming to office they introduced top-down reorganisation
which was clearly already in an advanced stage of planning before the election
when they made the promise took place.
Is it any wonder so many of the electorate say: “You’re all
the same, we can’t trust a word any of you say.”?
These are just recent
examples. There are many others, not
least the case for the invasion
of Iraq. Over a long period both Labour
and Conservative politicians have been pretending that we can improve the
quality of our civic society without
raising taxes: in shorthand, have “Scandinavian public services with American levels
of taxation. “ This is obviously untrue,
but no other party, no, not even the Liberals/Liberal Democrats have had the courage
to challenge this undeliverable bribe.
One of the reasons for these lies is that politicians have
an exaggerated idea of what they are capable of doing (or poor Alexis Tsipras
of Greece is discovering this weekend.) Whatever
UKIP might like to think no nation is metaphorically an island, capable of going its own way and ignoring the rest of
the world.
Another reason is that the electorate appear to be
unprepared to listen to serious analysis of our choices, but prefer catchy
sound-bites. Until senior politicians of all the parties are prepared to renounce these and engage in serious discussion it is difficult
to see the way ahead.
Our political system
is patently unfair.
aa)
In the grossly distorted levels of funding available
to the parties for campaigning. Things are not yet as bad as in the US where
the presidency is “up for sale” but we’re moving that way.
bb)
The press is heavily biased to one party, the
Conservatives.
cc)
The electoral system gives a biased result (more
of this later.)
dd)
We are certainly not “All in this together.” Bankers and business tycoons give themselves hugely disproportionate
financial rewards, mostly avoid any retribution for wrong doing, whilst people
at the bottom of society are told that they’re lucky if they have a “zero-hours
contract” and the expansion of these is hailed as a government success.
Someone in the riots a few years ago was
gaoled for stealing a bottle of water, whist people who swindle society out of millions
get a slap on the wrist even if the “system” bothers to catch up with them.
ee)
Wealthy special interest groups exercise undue influence
governments of whatever complexion.
Denigration.
The political system and its practitioners are subjected to persistent
denigration, some of it well deserved , but as senior Tory politician
Douglas Hurd (I think it was) pointed out some years ago, it is so much easier for people to succeed in our society be
criticising those trying to improve it, than to try to improve it themselves. Think of Jeremy Paxman and his sneer and
bullying tactics. I gather he is not to
accept the invitation to “have a go yourself” by standing for the mayoralty of London.
The “fun” goes back a long way, I know, - eg the satirical cartoons in
Punch in the 19th Century – and was refreshed in the 60s by “Beyond
the Fringe” and “That was the Week that Was.”
To take the high and mighty down a peg or two has value, but when such
denigration becomes the prevailing norm, then our democracy is indeed in
danger.
The Electoral system.
Yes, I know, it had to be that for a died in the wool
Liberal, but really, if the main engine of our democracy is faulty how can we
expect good results? Not only does the
present crude system produce distorted results, and permits a party with the support
of a modest minority of the electorate (40% of the vote translates to about
only a quarter of those entitled to vote on the sort of turnouts we're getting today) to implement their whims against the overwhelming
will of the majority, (eg opening up the NHS to privatisation) but it means
that the major contending parties moderate their policies to try to attract the
minority of “floating voters” in the minority of “marginal constituencies.” Hence, give or take minor differences in emphasis here and
there, we really are “all the same” (eg the slavish adherence to further
austerity).
Only proportional representation by single transferable vote
in multi-member constituencies will enable the parties to be themselves and
give us a real choice.
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