Party Politics is dying... so what happens next?
On the eve of the political party conference season I have never witnessed such a high degree of disengagement with the current political system. I do not believe this is because people do not care, I believe it is because people have given up on the notion that their voice makes any difference. For some time now we have been presented with a mere colour choice in politics. People enter politics with high ambitions to bring about change, but very soon they get systemised and realise that the people holding the key to change also hold their future in their hands... towing the party line becomes an inevitability if you want to get on in politics...
I was speaking with a friend around a month ago and we were discussing the issues of local government and how change can be effected... and it was the lack of sense and action that was a catalyst for this individual to get involved, not as a councillor but in the system in some way. Having got involved he soon realised that to bring about change is not easy... and here is an example. My friend lives in a small village and is passionate about improving the lives of those in the village... so far so good! ... and then an issue comes up... one which affects the people of the village in a negative way... and so there is lobbying... councillors agree with the argument from the local people and support their viewpoint... it moves to the local cabinet meeting at council... only to find that the majority of councillors are from the 'other political side' none of them live in this village and yet they determine the outcome on this issue... they tow the 'party line' and effectively all the local people are 'railroaded' and ignored... how is this right? ... and what of my friend? ... completely disillusioned with politics… This is NOT DEMOCRACY!
The Horse meat scandal… 6 months since the news of this broke… one would have expected some heads to roll… some further action taken against the supermarkets who… sold us a product that was not as labelled… you or I would have had our businesses shut down over this by the food and health commission or some ‘body’ set up to protect our interests… but what of the supermarkets who have a duty of care when it comes to the products they supply? They would no doubt argue they bought those products in good faith… it was not their fault… but they sold them to us… they must take responsibility for this gross misconduct… and yet I am guessing… they faced no charges because the pockets of these huge companies is very deep… they can hire the best legal teams… it would be folly to try and take on these organisations especially at the taxpayers expense! … so the bigger the business the more safe you are, the more influence and control you have over the legal system and of course leverage on the political class…
This is not my kind of politics, the reason why we do not trust government is because they are self serving and no longer represent the people of this country. But in all honesty how can they? The system of government that exists provides no scope for change, it cannot be sorted from within, it must be replaced by something better. For 300+ years we have carefully built a dinosaur of a political system… it is overly complex having been added to and changed over the years through the many challenges that we have faced. But we have never been where we are today… we never had the Internet, information never travelled so fast… the truths never exposed so quickly. It is time for a white sheet of paper… it is time to think again about how we can salvage what we will be needing going forward and ditch the rest. We cannot afford 46p in the pound on tax for an organisation that fails miserably to deliver for us and especially when the money is being spent poorly and we continue to borrow to prop up the whole sorry mess.
As we have become so disillusioned with politics however, in the background other interesting developments are beginning to take place. The population is turning its interest away from politics in favour of ‘stepping up’ and making a difference, locally. Yes, local issues are being fought by groups getting together to fight for what they want, and we are seeing more and more of this. Local people are beginning to take responsibility for issues that affect them… and they are picking up the cudgels themselves, not waiting for the ‘grey suits’ of Whitehall or politics to get around to it. Two interesting articles I have found below which demonstrate the above very clearly…
Clearly politics and what we have isn’t cutting it for the 21st century and the modern world we live in. The people are ready, we are at a time and place to take on a big change, a huge void needs filling… most people I talk to having nothing good to say about politics, they do not trust or believe what information we are being fed and how it is then delivered through the media… once highly respected organisations like the BBC and the Newspapers are now viewed with high levels of scepticism. We just have to look at the reports on Syria… who do you really believe? We were lied to about Iraq and Afghanistan, why should we not view what we are being fed about Syria with a degree of caution?
People do things for a reason… Politicians are people… people with power and money want two things… more power and more money… they are not role models we would want for ourselves or our children, we need to find others that possess the qualities we would want… honesty, integrity, authenticity, loyalty, giving not taking disposition, supportive and nurturing… actually, answering a question with an answer would be a nice start! Haven’t seen that in a long while…
The days of centrally controlled, bully boy politics is coming to a close, it is our collective responsibility to replace it with a platform where we can all have a voice, where each of us is valued and important, where we can all play a part (large or small) and where we can unite to rebuild the country… and if we believe, and we work together, by 2020 we will have realised the dream...
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