Let's face it. Boris and the Tories have screwed up and screwed us right royally, yet Labour and Kier have failed to make any serious capital. We probably need complete regime change in both parties but is there anyone that can lead them or has it now gone too far. Do we need a complete reset?
Yes and no. Yes, because obviously politics in the UK is an utter farce, where latterly both leading parties have imposed policies that have stripped assets and services from the state, introducing the law of the market to every aspect of life. This has been to the advantage of the rich and the disempowerment of the poor and moderately off who cannot now afford even the lowest rung on the ladder. It needs revolutionary change. However, assuming this is not forthcoming then the likelihood is that two parties will emerge, one representing the interests of capital and the other the interests of organised working people. You could call these parties by different names, but that’s what they will be like. The Party of Capital will use all its power to deceive from its true intentions, masquerading as the friend of the poor and defender of the nation and the Party of Workers will be more or less infected by the same thinking. It will struggle to think differently and be defamed when it does. In saying that, hats off the SNP for a least trying to build things and govern sensibly.
Two things I'd change immediately. First make the PM answer the questions put to him in PMQs not answer the ones he wished he were asked. Second, I'd make the election day a Saturday with poling stations at convenient locations like supermarkets. Having elections on a Thursday just because it's traditional is daft. I would also like to see a weakening of party based politics and more free votes in the Commons but I can't see that one happening any time soon.
I believe it's time for a written constitution and implementation of oversight with teeth. BSJ has proven that constitutional conventions no longer work to keep people inside the lines. Now that those lines have been crossed, they will continue to be in the future, and it will get progressively worse. A sitting PM who is charged with something shouldn't need to resign, they should be automatically removed from office via procedure. Same situation with those found to be profiting off their office, insider trading, giving government contracts to friends or donors, etc. etc. etc. There should be zero tolerance for corruption. Proven corruption should immediately result in the termination of that official's term. Opposition parties should be barred from trading on it, and all investigations should be handled by a properly empowered third party that acts with compete transparency. None of which will ever happen, of course, because pigs like having their snouts in the trough.
I've grown to dislike the party system very much. I've no idea what to replace it with but there has to be a better way than what we have now.
Totally agree. The easiest thing would be to allow for more private member's bills with free votes.....with absolutely no party leadership pressure or retribution. I think there are a lot of MPs, on both sides of the house, who do want to make a difference and do have a lot of ideas of how to do that. If MPs could vote on the merits of these ideas rather than being forced to vote based on the political "benefit" to their party, I think there would be a lot of good and beneficial change for our country.
Parties just make people lazy. So many turn up to vote and look for a party rather than coming to vote for a candidate. That's fine if parties don't allow awful candidates to run, but they clearly don't make any attempt to police that at all anymore. Candidates of the likes of BSJ should have never, ever been allowed to run for office in the first place. It's not like his character (or lack of it) was a surprise to anyone. If there were no parties you might have to actually research who you are voting for. Perish the thought...
The problem with not having a party system is getting concensus and actually getting things done. When you have 600 odd different opinions it just becomes a mess. That party system is fine, it's just the parties that we currently have that are the issue. If we had a half decent central party they could reign in the left and right into being a bit more realistic. The issue with that is they then become bland as far as media is concerned and get no representation. We need soemone to take the current parties down from the inside. I'd suggest Clive becomes the Tory Party candidate for Cuba South.
Interesting in what way? Some form of PR? All that will do is potentially break the link between a consituent and it's MP and likely tie up the house with multiple hung parliaments, or just vote one of the lot we've got at the moment. We do need greater respresentation from minor parties but I'm not convinced PR is the right way to go about it, certainly with our current set-up. Maybe what we need to do is ring fence certain things like Education, Defence, Healthcare etc. Have democratically elected representatives field these teams, almost treat them like councils separate from direct government control? Dunno just brain storming.
PR would be better than our current system of minority rule. The UK has an ongoing problem where the majority party and elected government (not just the current one) have sufficient MPs to not require the other parties, but don't represent the majority of voters. I would suggest this is why so many issues get kicked down the road; there's no pressure to deal with them because you don't need ~2/3rds of the voters to get into power under FPTP.
I'd start by banning anyone who has ever been a member of a political party or who actually wants to be an MP from standing
I don't have such a problem with the party system being used to provide the Executive and the general direction of policy, especially around economic policy. But it doesn't have to be based on the winner takes all. As others have said, a proportional representative system would be fairer and would, almost certainly, end up with coalition governments. You could take the party system out of it completely. If all MPs were independent and they elect the executive based on a HoC ballot then that could produce a functioning government. I do see the weakness in both PR and a total independent system though as it would be far harder for the electorate to indicate a direction that they want the country to head in. I do feel the current system isn't working though (born out by the continually low turnout at elections) and all alternatives should be considered, especially those that break down the adversarial party system that just turns the public off politics imho.
Mainly I think the system isn't working because of the people in it not because the system itself is wrong. We need to recruit top people with relevent industry and life experience. It needs to be a proper job, with proper hours and a propoer calendar where you can't do anything else. Staff should be recruited and salaried through Westminster. Offices and resources provided and budgeted, not expensed and we need to pay a wage that attracts the right people. Paying £85K odd allowing extra jobs & spouses working for you whilst you sit on boards of companies, will only ever attract the type of people we've got now. People that don't need the money, are in it for politics sake or for the power, rather than being in it for the good of the country.
It will come as little surprise that I reject this apparently meritocratic view (though I agree we often have the wrong people). These ‘top people’ already run the World and through their wealth and connections, influence the outcomes they want from politicians. What we need are dynamic and confident people from a representative cross-section of the Country, which means mostly working class people. Agree that it should be a proper job in itself and not part time malarkey in-between other work for people like Geoffrey Cox.
Not your Elon Musks or your Richard Bransons, more your experienced doctor, engineer, company director, builder. People that have risen to the top of an industry, that's more what I meant.
Life experience is good, but MPs have to put themselves in the shoes of the bottom and the top, not just the top.
True, but people generally work their way up to get to that level so should have some perspective. What we don't want is often what we have now, people that have never had a real job and and have been in a political party from intern to MP or people born with a silver spoon in their mouth who don't know if a pint of milk costs £1 or £10.
i think last week elections said a lot about the state we are in. The Tories lost about 400 seats (335 ish in Eng) but labour only won 22 of those 335 All that tells us is that no one wants Johnson & no one wants Starmer ! Come the next election the SNP will be king makers, the 50 or 55 seats will give Starmer the opportunity to to form a majority government. The question is what will he sell out be ? A 2nd Independent referendum, seats in the cabinet, rejoin the EU ? - if this is the case how with the English voters feel about Queen Nichola having a say over what happens in Westminster ? I agree with others that the 2 party system doesn't work, nor does PMQs to be honest. The PM actually have to answer the question directly, so what is the point.
England may feel similar to how Scotland felt when forced by English voters to leave the EU, despite voting overwhelmingly against it. The advice of English nationalists to Scotland was largely that’s democracy, so suck it up. And that would also be my advice to English voters were the SNP to be kingmakers. If you think the circumstances are different, then that might be precisely why so many Scots want to leave the Union.
The press and two big parties have done a number on the electorate over PR. The only two countries in Europe that use first past the post are us and Belarus (and they're a sham democracy). Coalitions are nothing to be scared of and generally won't lead to paralysis. And they fulfill that role of tempering the behaviour of the largest party. What's the point of having a centrist party that might get 20%+ of the vote and fewer than 10% of the seats?
I think that the way forward for the state is for English voters to try and put democracy above tradition. We need to move on from the past and prepare better for the future to better serve the population. This would take the shape of a national discussion with the people leading, not being led and to decide how we want to take power into our own hands. Ignoring the pleas of the few with only sole control of the levers of power on their minds to suit them and their pals! This would be a huge distraction from the present but allow us to become a fairer society one day. My option would be to devolve all powers relating to day to day life solely in the hands of local representatives at council level. Let my friends and neighbours decide what’s best for me. The reason I say “English voters” is not a slur but an acceptance of who I believe gets to decide my future… currently. Only the English electorate can make this change possible. Good luck to you all!
Surely some mistake here? The top two are the parties of the working class. We get told often enough on here that’s what they are. Some people are going to be shocked when they find out the parties they vote for bat for the bosses and the mega-wealthy.
