Telling or Listening - When in Government Series
UKpopdems – When in Government Series 1 of 4
A series of papers illustrating how UKpopdems will manage government for the benefit of Britain and the British people.
1. Telling or listening – we can have effective leadership in government and give real power to ordinary Britons.
Everybody knows the British people have lost faith in the political system. How does a system, once so lauded and copied throughout the world, the mother of Parliaments, come to stink so badly like a corrupt and decomposing corpse? Well, ask anyone on the street if you dare. They won’t hold back: ‘they’re only in it for themselves’; ‘they’re all the same. You can’t push tissue paper between any of them’; ‘it’s all lies and spin’; ‘they don’t care about ordinary people’; ‘They’re out of touch and just not listening’; ‘When do politicians ever admit they’re wrong?’; ‘It’s do as I say, not do as I do’.
When did it begin? Well Thatcher’s Tories introduced greed with their ‘loads o’ money culture’. Major’s Tories kept the greed and introduced sleaze – remember the sword of truth? Tony’s New Labour kept the greed and sleaze and became the masters of spin. No day was ever so bad that more bad news couldn’t be buried into it. Strangely, it’s spin that’s done the most damage because it’s so insidious. You think you’re getting the truth. It sounds like the truth. But spin is just a manipulation of facts to prove whatever a politician wants. Spin lives next door to lying. We’re all being fooled and it’s not a very nice experience. What’s worse is that spin is such a successful political tool that even the Libdems have taken it up!
So who’s got things right, politicians or the British people? The Standards Committee on Public Life last year published a survey confirming a deep mistrust of politicians by the public. Sir Alastair Graham, Chairman of the Standards Committee was reported as saying, ‘These results should concern all of us who want to live in a healthy democracy; one that is dependent on vibrant, competitive political parties and politicians who need our trust and consent to carry out their critically important roles’. No-one knows what’s happened since because that piece of bad news has been well and truly buried?
It’s worse still because politicians think they know best all the time and are always telling the rest of us what to do, what to think, what to feel even. Not themselves, of course, they can do what they like. It’s total hypocrisy but that’s the corruption of power. It’s the root problem, really. Politics is all about power. Not the democratic power and will of the people, but the executive power taken by politicians for themselves. Parties out of office talk about gaining power, the power of office. What we, the ordinary people, want is just for politicians to listen and represent our views within the machinery of government to make our lives better. But the only time that happens, and rarely, is when folk become so enraged by politicians not listening that they take to the streets. Politicians don’t call that ‘the will of the people’, they call it ‘mob rule’. That adequately expresses where politicians are coming from.
UKpopdems know it’s time to recognise that the people know better about what they want than the politicians and we need to change things. It should all be so different. Britain led the world once in developing Parliamentary democracy. Now, after hundreds of years, too much power rests in the hands of politicians and they see themselves as our rightful masters, like grand potentates. Our brand of democracy has become corrupted and needs re-balancing. UKpopdems will make sure politicians have less power, so they can’t abuse it or us. Ordinary people will have more power so that politicians are forced to listen. Is that asking too much? Will the roof fall in? Is this mob rule?
This is how things will change with a UKpopdem government. Politicians need to become much more like contractors and less like bossy Headmistresses. A contractor will work really hard to understand what you, the customer, want. He or she will talk to you and listen carefully. Then apply his or her expertise to what you have said and come up with a design specification showing, in fair detail, what will be delivered, and may even show you a model of how it would all work in practice. Once you have the detail, and the cost, only then do you make up your mind. Once you give a contractor the job, then it’s a pretty good idea to have an independent arbiter to monitor the delivery. If the contractor subtly changes things to the way he or she wants and not what you wanted, then the arbiter can challenge the contractor. Likewise, if something unexpected comes up, the arbiter can test if it really is something new. In both cases the contractor needs to come back to you, as the customer, and ask your opinion and permission to go ahead, telling you the costs and impacts.
Today, political parties’ manifestos try to sell you a kind of fuzzy dream that all will be well if only Tories/Labour/LibDem (interchangeable) ran the country and LibDem/Labour/Tories (interchangeable) were voted out. There’s no detail to speak of. You know in your heart it will all end in tears and you’ll be sorry, but it’s the victory of hope over experience and, besides, you have no real choice as all the main parties are the same. So you don’t vote, or you vote the way you’ve always voted, or you vote on the personality of the party leader, or you vote for one lot because you don’t like the other lot, or you vote for an extreme protest party. What else can you do? You’ve got no delivery detail to go on. And once they’re in? Well that’s when the dream so often turns to nightmare, reality kicks in and you suddenly wake up to find you are falling, falling down that snake and things aren’t any better after all.
UKpopdems will act in government a bit like contractors – not masters of the people like today’s politicians. Now, if politicians were contractors, you’d know they have to listen to what you want and you can easily tell if they have listened, because it’s all in the detail of what they intend to deliver. You can vote in safety because you know a strong, independent regulator is looking after you interests. Any changes and the regulator will get back to you for a vote on that specific topic. Also, if you need to change something then it’s not too late, you can vote on that as well. This will not lead to chaos. No, what it leads to is real democracy, real choice. UKpopdems government of Britain is not about replacing politicians with a mob. The government still has to lead and run the country, an incredibly important job, but it has to think through what it wants to do much more carefully. It has to bring the people along with it and it really needs to deliver what it promises. What we have now is much worse. What we have is government through the ego and arrogance of just a very few men and women out of touch with real people. Egotistical, arrogant and out of touch people make mistakes, but they won’t admit to them and just plough on regardless. The bigger the ego the bigger the mistakes and ordinary people can get hurt.
The main parties can’t be trusted to voluntarily give away power, it has to be forced on them, and so the people have to make sure it happens themselves by voting UKpopdems or other parties that put these promises in writing. Ask your local MP if he or she views themselves as your servant or your master and take it from there. That’ll flummox them. Are there any other parties out there besides UKpopdems that want to increase the power of the people and reduce the power of politicians? For this coming local election where UKpopdems will not be standing officially because we want to eliminate the cost, bureaucracy and undemocratic principles of local councils, give the big boys a real scare and vote for the fringe parties or independents. Local councils have lost so much credibility they can’t hurt you more than they’re hurting now, but LibDems, Tories and Labour will start listening harder.
A series of papers illustrating how UKpopdems will manage government for the benefit of Britain and the British people.
1. Telling or listening – we can have effective leadership in government and give real power to ordinary Britons.
Everybody knows the British people have lost faith in the political system. How does a system, once so lauded and copied throughout the world, the mother of Parliaments, come to stink so badly like a corrupt and decomposing corpse? Well, ask anyone on the street if you dare. They won’t hold back: ‘they’re only in it for themselves’; ‘they’re all the same. You can’t push tissue paper between any of them’; ‘it’s all lies and spin’; ‘they don’t care about ordinary people’; ‘They’re out of touch and just not listening’; ‘When do politicians ever admit they’re wrong?’; ‘It’s do as I say, not do as I do’.
When did it begin? Well Thatcher’s Tories introduced greed with their ‘loads o’ money culture’. Major’s Tories kept the greed and introduced sleaze – remember the sword of truth? Tony’s New Labour kept the greed and sleaze and became the masters of spin. No day was ever so bad that more bad news couldn’t be buried into it. Strangely, it’s spin that’s done the most damage because it’s so insidious. You think you’re getting the truth. It sounds like the truth. But spin is just a manipulation of facts to prove whatever a politician wants. Spin lives next door to lying. We’re all being fooled and it’s not a very nice experience. What’s worse is that spin is such a successful political tool that even the Libdems have taken it up!
So who’s got things right, politicians or the British people? The Standards Committee on Public Life last year published a survey confirming a deep mistrust of politicians by the public. Sir Alastair Graham, Chairman of the Standards Committee was reported as saying, ‘These results should concern all of us who want to live in a healthy democracy; one that is dependent on vibrant, competitive political parties and politicians who need our trust and consent to carry out their critically important roles’. No-one knows what’s happened since because that piece of bad news has been well and truly buried?
It’s worse still because politicians think they know best all the time and are always telling the rest of us what to do, what to think, what to feel even. Not themselves, of course, they can do what they like. It’s total hypocrisy but that’s the corruption of power. It’s the root problem, really. Politics is all about power. Not the democratic power and will of the people, but the executive power taken by politicians for themselves. Parties out of office talk about gaining power, the power of office. What we, the ordinary people, want is just for politicians to listen and represent our views within the machinery of government to make our lives better. But the only time that happens, and rarely, is when folk become so enraged by politicians not listening that they take to the streets. Politicians don’t call that ‘the will of the people’, they call it ‘mob rule’. That adequately expresses where politicians are coming from.
UKpopdems know it’s time to recognise that the people know better about what they want than the politicians and we need to change things. It should all be so different. Britain led the world once in developing Parliamentary democracy. Now, after hundreds of years, too much power rests in the hands of politicians and they see themselves as our rightful masters, like grand potentates. Our brand of democracy has become corrupted and needs re-balancing. UKpopdems will make sure politicians have less power, so they can’t abuse it or us. Ordinary people will have more power so that politicians are forced to listen. Is that asking too much? Will the roof fall in? Is this mob rule?
This is how things will change with a UKpopdem government. Politicians need to become much more like contractors and less like bossy Headmistresses. A contractor will work really hard to understand what you, the customer, want. He or she will talk to you and listen carefully. Then apply his or her expertise to what you have said and come up with a design specification showing, in fair detail, what will be delivered, and may even show you a model of how it would all work in practice. Once you have the detail, and the cost, only then do you make up your mind. Once you give a contractor the job, then it’s a pretty good idea to have an independent arbiter to monitor the delivery. If the contractor subtly changes things to the way he or she wants and not what you wanted, then the arbiter can challenge the contractor. Likewise, if something unexpected comes up, the arbiter can test if it really is something new. In both cases the contractor needs to come back to you, as the customer, and ask your opinion and permission to go ahead, telling you the costs and impacts.
Today, political parties’ manifestos try to sell you a kind of fuzzy dream that all will be well if only Tories/Labour/LibDem (interchangeable) ran the country and LibDem/Labour/Tories (interchangeable) were voted out. There’s no detail to speak of. You know in your heart it will all end in tears and you’ll be sorry, but it’s the victory of hope over experience and, besides, you have no real choice as all the main parties are the same. So you don’t vote, or you vote the way you’ve always voted, or you vote on the personality of the party leader, or you vote for one lot because you don’t like the other lot, or you vote for an extreme protest party. What else can you do? You’ve got no delivery detail to go on. And once they’re in? Well that’s when the dream so often turns to nightmare, reality kicks in and you suddenly wake up to find you are falling, falling down that snake and things aren’t any better after all.
UKpopdems will act in government a bit like contractors – not masters of the people like today’s politicians. Now, if politicians were contractors, you’d know they have to listen to what you want and you can easily tell if they have listened, because it’s all in the detail of what they intend to deliver. You can vote in safety because you know a strong, independent regulator is looking after you interests. Any changes and the regulator will get back to you for a vote on that specific topic. Also, if you need to change something then it’s not too late, you can vote on that as well. This will not lead to chaos. No, what it leads to is real democracy, real choice. UKpopdems government of Britain is not about replacing politicians with a mob. The government still has to lead and run the country, an incredibly important job, but it has to think through what it wants to do much more carefully. It has to bring the people along with it and it really needs to deliver what it promises. What we have now is much worse. What we have is government through the ego and arrogance of just a very few men and women out of touch with real people. Egotistical, arrogant and out of touch people make mistakes, but they won’t admit to them and just plough on regardless. The bigger the ego the bigger the mistakes and ordinary people can get hurt.
The main parties can’t be trusted to voluntarily give away power, it has to be forced on them, and so the people have to make sure it happens themselves by voting UKpopdems or other parties that put these promises in writing. Ask your local MP if he or she views themselves as your servant or your master and take it from there. That’ll flummox them. Are there any other parties out there besides UKpopdems that want to increase the power of the people and reduce the power of politicians? For this coming local election where UKpopdems will not be standing officially because we want to eliminate the cost, bureaucracy and undemocratic principles of local councils, give the big boys a real scare and vote for the fringe parties or independents. Local councils have lost so much credibility they can’t hurt you more than they’re hurting now, but LibDems, Tories and Labour will start listening harder.
posted by United Kingdom Popular Democratic Party at 2:12 pm
