The power in this country is concentrated within a couple of square miles centred on the Houses of Parliment. Politicians, civil servants, business, media people, banks etc all have their offices in this area. Deals are done openly, but many more are done in private and are often not formal deals, but understandings.
So the top civil servant, the politician, having a quiet drink in his club, at an arts event, fund raiser or dinner party will get to know a businessman and naturally they will talk and understanding will be made.
There is not the need for briefcases full of money in this country as mostly things work on I’ll scratch your back and when I take my generous retirement packet there will be a well paid consultancy or two to keep me in the manner I deserve for all the stress of running the country.
So apart from the Guy Fawkes strategy what can we do?
The real problem with democracy is that after an election you end up with politicians.
And in this country the first past the post system generally elects a dictatorship. To maintain the dictatorship whips whip, bribes of ministerships, seats on committees, trips to investigate recycling in sunny climes and a host of other enducements and controls generally keep the MPs in line.
Since Harold Wilson there has been a move to more centralisation of power. Before that there was just deference.
Your individual MP does not have a lot of power except in matters that do not worry the government or the opposition.
The other problem is that in the majority on constituencies if you do not agree with the party of your MP you are effectively disenfranchised. Most Surrey MPs are not going to support your demands for re-nationalising the railways whereas if you live in Sheffield and believe in privatising sections of the NHS you are going to be politely heard and then ignored.
So how do solve this problem of democracy?
My suggestions are as follows:
1 Reduce the number of MPs. Their main job should be to be involved in the developmwent of laws and the monitoring government budgets.
2 I would have far larger constituencies covering 6 or 8 MPs and voting by PR.
We would then be given 2 votes:
One for a party
One for the individual candidate.
The votes would then divided up according to parties and then the individuals with the highest number of votes would end up being selected for each party.
So the representatives of each party would be the ones who are most respected by the local citizens, rather than selected by the local party or parachuted in by the party’s national office.
It also means that with 6 or 8 MPs representing a larger area that there is more likely to be at least one who you want to communicate with.
3 There would be funding in each town hall for a meeting room for people to meet their MP and councillors. Most MPs’ work is to do mwith local issues. I would encourage a situation where the distressed citizen is quickly linked to the appropriate political support.
With this system the MP would be liked to the local party representatives, which will give him or her an insight into current problems within the country.
4 The English regions to be given their own parliament, with the same rights as the Scottish Parliament. This will then help and encourage local democracy.
I would then argue that these parliaments are given their own tax raising powers. I would prefer that income tax and corporation tax etc was raised in the regions and then a percentage of that was then sent on to the central government.
5 That Education, Health and many other aspects of public spending are taken over by the regions. They in turn would work together to discuss strategies.
So educational qualifications would be harmonised thorugh agreements between the regions.
This would then stop the numerous goal settings and short term schemes being run to help an Education Minister’s career.
Education etc needs considered thought with input from relevant people eg people working in education, parents, academics, local politicians etc.
6 French Mayors in every town. In France the mayor has a lot more power than in Britian. They can also be proactive.
As an example I have heard of one mayor getting the town to buy up some derelict shops and letting them out at low, below commerical rents, to encourage people to move to the village.
7 House of Scutineers
Instead of the Lords I would have a House of Scrutineers. This is after all their job.
How they would be selected:
It would be done on a regional basis.
People would be nominated by individuals, by organisations etc. to form a pool of potential scrutineers. This would get away from just polticians coming forward.
Then using the Athenian method scrutineers would be selected at random.
In the first case they would be given a two year term as Scrutineer. The reason for this is to all the Scutineer to find out whether they are suited to the job and to see whether they do the job properly.
They will then be offered the job for 8 years. The reason for this is that to be effective, independent scrutineer time to get into the job.
After 8 years they will br subject to re-election. this will be however a simple ‘should they remain?’ Yes or No.
8 Voting in parliament
The scheme in parliament of the Ayes to the Right and Nos to the left is a nice historical action, but not suited to the present day.
I feel that all votes should be done electronically and the results shown on the internet. The system would also allow the individual MP to explain why he voted in a particular way.
The vote could be preset so that, for example, a minister going to a meeting abroad would have no excuse not to vote.
This system could be developed so that discussions between politicans on a particular amedment could be discussed, points made, questions asked, and answered, or evaded weeks before the vote and this would then give the ordinary voter the chance to intervene, raise points, express digust or support.
Central government would be only concerend with a few central issues, such as defence, foreign relations and criminal law. The centralised civil service in many areas, such as education and health, would effectively be abolished.
If these points were followed the country would over a few generations move towards a more democratic system with the ordianry voter having more insight and the ability top get more involved.