My good friend Laura Sandys – Conservative candidate for Thanet and Chair of openDemocracy ( on whose board I also serve and which owns OurKingdom ) – wrote the equivalent of a party political broadcast yesterday in praise of David Cameron and, by implication, her political party.
Rightly a response should come from another political party activist – which I am not. I neither belong to nor support any political party. I distrust them and those who operate them and, whilst acknowledging that a modern representative democracy needs them, believe that they, and the desire for unaccountable power which motivates many of those who rise to lead them, lies at the heart of many of our problems.
To my ears, the words of Cameron fall easily from the mouth of someone who believes that it is those who have invested assiduously time, energy, money and emotion over many years in becoming a significant part of the political establishment who are entitled to tell us what is wrong and what they will do for us to put it right. It all sounds very much like the view of someone who sees their ‘turn’ coming and wants to give little more than words away before they are in a position to enjoy it.
That objectionable and disrespectful stance goes to the core of the struggle which is now, I hope, emerging - a struggle between ‘we the people’ and the political establishment. Personally, I am allergic to those politicians who tell us what power they are going to return to us in the way that they see as right. To me their stance stems from a wish to ignore that, in a true democracy, sovereignty and power must reside ultimately with ‘the people’ and that it is ‘the people’ who should tell the political establishment what it is that they want and what powers they are prepared to cede to their representatives and government.
Of course it is essential to turn this approach into reality with common sense. Direct, or deliberative, democracy in day to day life does not work well. But in relation to the way in which nations are structured and function it can. David Cameron and his followers are noticeably cagey on anything that smacks of true constitutional reform – particularly anything suggesting that ordinary people should participate in formulating what that reform should be. In particular they dislike proportional representation because it mitigates against the ‘strong’ government they are certain ‘we’ need. They seem to be disinterested in what ‘we’ think. Laura does not say much about that! I wonder why.
As for a reduction in the number of MPs, will the numbers on the government’s payroll be reduced also? Without that the government’s grip on Parliament will be increased. Perhaps, scenting power, Cameron would like that. I hope not.
