European elections

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

European elections

"If the established parties have their way, the prospects for change in Brussels vary between fat chance and no chance," saysThe Sun.

In truth, that applies no matter what party gets MEPs elected. All we are doing is choosing which pigs get their turn at the trough. And, as The Sun tells us, it is a very big trough - a "whopping salary" of £83,282 taxed at just 15 per cent.

"Then there is the £260 a day attendance allowance, famously known as "SOSO" - Sign On and S*d Off. Yet for the few hours they do put in, they are entitled to claim almost £36,778 a year in food and booze - enough to feed several entire families. Plus hundreds of thousands more for office costs and staff allowances - often paid to spouses and family members." 

We the people … get to pick the pigs. Why are we allowing this to happen?

COMMENT THREAD

We the people

Picking up the thread from my co-editor, it cannot be said enough times that power belongs to the people – not the politicians. It is not theirs to give to us … they hold it trust and exercise it on our behalf.

Developing the theme further, governments by their very nature, will always abuse the power with which they are entrusted. That is an inalienable fact of life. To that extent, governments are not our friends. They are our enemies, more so our own, which has the capability to do infinite damage.

If we could do without governments, the world would be a better place. Since we cannot, we tolerate them, simply because the alternative – of not having a government - is worse.

But we the people must recognise that governments are not our friends. We must constrain them, control them, limit their ability to act and ensure that the power they hold is exercised for us, on our terms, not theirs. The government should fear the people, not the other way around.

In an effective system, we delegate the powers of supervision and constraint to specialists – just as we delegate growing our food to specialists. The latter are called farmers, the former politicians or, more specifically, parliamentarians. They, the parliamentarians are not – or should not be - the "government". Actually, the better word is "executive", a word not used often enough in this country.

The problem we have at the moment – one of many, although this one is important – is that the executive and the parliament are too close. The one draws its members from the other, to the extent that the role of the one is submerged by the other. The roles must be separated, if parliament - ourparliament is properly to do its job.

This is for us to demand – we are the people and the power is us. When we hear politicians offer their ideas for "reform”, by all means we can and should listen politely. But no politician should be awarded approval uncritically, unthinkingly. It is for us to decide, not them, where the constraints lie.

Thus, with "reform" suddenly on the agenda, we cannot and should not allow the politicians to make the running. Inescapably, because their world view is different from ours, they will fashion the constraints and the controls in a way that suits them, not us. If, on the other hand, we choose to lie back and allow them to dictate the agenda, we will not get what we and the generations that follow us deserve. But we will deserve what we get.

COMMENT THREAD

Stand and deliver

Good work byPoliticsHome tells us the scale of the mountain Mr Cameron has to climb to convince people that he means what he says.

From a nationwide poll of 1,178 adults on whether a Cameron as prime minister would be as radical as he is promising on devolution of power, it finds that an overwhelming majority of the public are sceptical, predicting that he would be more cautious in office. In figures, a full 70 percent think Cameron would be more cautious and only 23 percent think he would deliver.

Needless to say, in the tribal nature of politics, 54 percent of Conservative supporters "think" (if one can use such a word in this context) he would deliver, as against 44 percent who think not.

We would tend to go with the 70 percent, not least because – in our viewCameron has made promises (or implied that he will take action) on issues where he can either not deliver, or has no intention of so doing. As such, even James Slack of The Daily Mail notes that the man has left "wriggle room".

Of the various commentators, Melanie Phillips echoes our caution, noting that Cameron’s words were good, but "he must know that if the public perceive that the policies on offer don’t match up to the fine rhetoric, then far from remedying public alienation from the political class he will merely deepen it still further." 

Simon Jenkins in The Guardian writes under a heading which proclaims: "Cameron can talk the talk, but that's no longer enough". Scepticism, he says, is justified by evidence. Every modern government promises to cut waste and bureaucracy, and duly increases them. Unless politicians have the guts to say how, they deserve a hollow laugh. This, not some trivia about expenses and tinkering with parliament, is the rot in the system.

In most states, he adds, constitutions enshrine the separation and devolution of power. In Britain, students are taught that tradition and the probity of the ruling class are sufficient guard against elective dictatorship. It is no longer enough. That is why I believe that only a written constitution will free us from reliance on the wishy-washy, easy-to-discard pledges of leaders such as Blair, Brown and Cameron. The game is up. Their word is not to be trusted. Liberty from overpowering government must become compulsory. 

Even The Daily Telegraph utters a note of caution, warning that "Cameron must follow bold words with action". Failure to follow words with action, he says, "will only further erode public trust in politicians." 

Only the Tory claque seem genuinely enamoured with Elastoplast Dave's shining words, with young Daniel Hannan trilling that the "radical proposals" endorsed by David Cameron are the answer to life, the universe and everything. 

Tribal Tories are so easily pleased, but the rest of the population is not. We look upon political "promises" with weary cynicism, having been led up the hill so many times only to be led down again, our expectations deflated. That is not to say that we cannot be pleased – simply that words are no longer enough … and we have long memories. Fine words may buy time, but it really is time to stand and deliver.

Devil's Kitchen is not terribly impressed and a Tory Diary commentator says: "Don't try and divert the public's attention it will come back to bite you if you do and may well cost you the next election". Indeed! Cameron had better be serious about this. If he is not, he will find that we are.

COMMENT THREAD

A citizens' revolt?

It is rather entertaining, at one level, to see Simon Heffer declare an intention to take on Sir Alan Haselhurst at the polls, protesting at the use of his allowances to pay for £12,000-worth of gardening at his country house. 

Heffer, we are told, "joins the growing ranks of public figures who have come forward offering to unseat MPs seen to have abused the system". These include Esther Rantzen, the broadcaster and campaigner. She is to stand against Margaret Moran in Luton South unless the Labour MP resigns over her expenses, including £22,500-worth of dry rot treatment at a house 100 miles from her constituency. 

Robert Harris, the writer, said he had considered challenging Alan Duncan, the shadow Leader of the House – another gardening enthusiast – and Lynn Faulds Wood, the television consumer campaigner, is also prepared to have a go. Then we have David Van Day, the former Dollar singer, who says he is planning to oppose Nadine Dorries.

Another one who is feeding on this "anti-politician mood" is Mr David Cameron. He has stated an intention to re-open the Conservative Party candidate list, accepting applications from all-comers, even if they are not members of his party. 

Added to all that is the non-party party, the Jury team which wants to field a bunch of amateurs who want us to vote for "democracy, accountability and transparency" – without any giving any indication that they understand even the basic nature of the systems they wish to enter.

Looking at these developments in the round, the idea of having Heffer in parliament is indeed entertaining, and he would probably make quite a good MP within the current system. There is a long history of journalists becoming MPs and vice versa, although – as in Julie Kirkbride - the transition is not always successful.

Taken to the extreme, one can even entertain the idea of the country returning a complete deck of 646 "amateur" MPs, stripping out all of the incumbents and starting with a completely clean slate. That, of course, will not happen – but that still leaves the possibility of there being a significant number of amateurs in the next parliament.

Whether we would be better served is another question. Arguably, compared with the ghastly Esther Rantzen, even Margaret Moran and her £22,500-worth of dry rot treatment might seem attractive.

More specifically, while the sentiment is very much against career politicians, in an age when even dustmen call themselves "professionals", one would hope to have professional MPs in parliament – the term signifying that they do at least know what they are doing.

Here, there seems a certain element of confusion as to what MPs actually do – something we have often asked. But the best are very busy indeed, and work extremely hard. They tend to be those who rarely get the high-profile media treatment, not least because they are too busy to indulge in the sort of relentless self-promotion that gets MPs noticed.

And, where the MP attempts to do the job properly – within the constraints of a system that is designed to prevent them from so doing – the work is highly skilled, requires a great deal of aptitude, knowledge, experience and sheer, grinding hard work, leavened with prolonged bouts of frustration, tedium and fatigue. For all the visible glitz and glamour, it is a dreadful job if you do try to do it properly, and is most certainly not one I would enjoy (or even be good at).

Crucially though, the dominant experience is that of frustration. MPs are constantly up against the brick wall of a system that has robbed parliament of its powers and is unresponsive to the needs of a democratic society.

One has to ask, therefore, that if the "professionals" find being an MP such hard going – and find it so difficult to achieve anything – why it is people think that rank amateurs would be any better?

For sure, true "independents" free from party allegiances – if there were enough of them – might force through changes to the system. But that presupposes that they knew enough about the system to know what is wrong with it and what changes were needed. Then they would have to know enough about the procedures to be able to implement their changes, without the "pros" running rings round them and blocking their every move.

Then – ironically – in order to have any effect – the "independents" would have to organise themselves, agree a common line and tactics and then co-ordinate their actions to make sure their agendas prevailed. And hey! We have another political party.

As it is, a bunch of amateurs abroad in the cockpit of parliament would actually strengthen the incumbents. All at sea, without the party machinery to support, inform and co-ordinate them, the newbies would be taken to the cleaners by the established parties. Like as not, those newbies would find out very quickly what every MP already knows – that, as individuals, they are essentially powerless.

As for Mr Cameron and his call for amateur-hour, any party leader would welcome a bunch of novices at his beck and call – ignorant, confused, fearful and compliant, they would be easily maleable and, for a very long time, lambs to the slaughter. Even great egos like Ken Livingston were sucked in, chewed up and spat out, without making their mark.

All that points to the singular and inescapable fact – that the problem is not primarily the MPs, but the system in which they operate. Even the very best are frustrated by it, and new faces – while providing novelty and entertainment – are unlikely to do any better that the current bunch. Many would do far worse.

Therefore, the vital need is to change the system with a view to enabling our parliament to function more effectively. That change is unlikely to come from within parliament itself. This putative citizens revolt, therefore, is probably a dead-end street. Politicians – amateur or not – cannot fix the system on their own. We "the people" are going to have to force the pace.

COMMENT THREAD

Devolving power?

Is Cameron seriously suggeting devolving power to the people? Because, if he is, he does not understand the basic tenet of English political history. Mind you, neither do the media and most of the electorate. A short comment onYou Freedom and Ours. This is important: if those constitutional discussions start with that kind of a misunderstanding we shall get nowhere.

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/