Let's Party - NOT!

Start another political Party?  Never! 

 

Political parties are the bane and ruin of democratic societies because of the 'party line' (where there is one) and because of the crude and bullying Whipping system where the policies are ad hoc.  Except for the Party leaders, all politicians in the UK are duty bound to vote for the Party line, regardless of their own beliefs or consciences.  When we vote for our local Member of Parliament therefore in practice we are voting for a Leader we have had no voice in choosing and as a practical consequence we vote in favour of all his decisions, present or future.  So Blair can say, because New Labour won the election, that each and every decision he makes is with the support of the British people.  We all know that this is a perversion of the truth.  He makes a decision, often without even informing his Cabinet - who are supposed to share in and be equally responsible for those decisions - and then the Whips enforce backbench compliance.  What the Party system delivers is autocracy dressed up in democratic flimsy.

 

On the other hand, if there were no Parties, or alternatively if we all chose to vote for an Independant candidate and let the Parties go to the dogs, then parliamentary alliances would shift and change according to the issue and MPs would vote according to their conscience and/or to the wishes of their electorate. 

In my opinion, MPs cannot function as our delegates because for them to truly know the balance of opinion on any issue within their own electorate is impossible.  The only way it could be done is by endless Referenda and that would be a huge and unfeasible undertaking.  So MPs would be representative and therefore their character and beliefs would be the critical factor in their election.

 

I want an MP whose values and principles I approve of.  I want an MP who will judge issues on their own merits and vote accordingly - not one who votes the way he's told to regardless of his conscience or what he knows is right.  What's more, I don't want MPs funded by powerful individuals, either British or foreign, as happens now.  I don't want some rich foreign mogul deciding how I should live my life.  I want an MP who is funded only by his direct electorate.

 

 

Several years ago, Tony Blair was asked, I think by William Hague, exactly what principles underlie New Labour - and he was unable to answer.  This, in my opinion, is because he has no principles beyond the maintenance of his own position in power.  I see no signs of difference in this one crucial matter between Blair, Brown or either of the other Party leaders.  They lie before elections, safe in the knowledge that once in power the electorate have no means of redress.  In power they lie because, more often than not, they can keep the evidence of their lies a state secret.  I want an MP that I can deselect if he fails to live up to his pre-election promises.  Lacking that there is no penalty for venality among politicians - and my God but they are venal.

 

Political Parties?  I would outlaw them in favour of democracy.