Matt's Blog

Power

March 1st, 2006

The Power Inquiry report was published and has some interesting suggestions. Apparently, they’ve analysed the reasons why voter apathy is on the increase and its not due to “the supposedly low calibre and probity of politicians”. I guess its always been like that. And like this, this and this.

They have some really good ideas:

We should be creating a culture of political engagement in which it becomes the norm for policy and decision-making to occur with direct input from citizens. This means reform which provides citizens with clear, entitlements and procedures by which to exercise that input – from conception through to implementation of any policy or decision.

Or, in other words: The politicians we elect should actually do what we want? Thats never going to work – it presumes that politicians actually care about what their constituents want. I think when they’re first elected they might, but then over several years they get the taste of power and slowly, surely they turn into two-dimensional, amoralistic control-freaks.

Tony said:

But the modern world is different from the world for which these court processes were designed.

The Power report suggests that the modern world is different from the world for which current political processes were designed. It goes on to suggest such gems as:

A rebalancing of power away from the executive and unaccountable bodies towards Parliament and local government.

Don’t make me laugh. The current political system appears to thrive on the drippings of power handed down from the Prime Minister and cabinet. I think it would be highly unlikely that the PM or his heavily-whipped party would sign away the status quo just on the basis of morals, scruples or ideology.

It has been previously reported that a “key cause” of increasing religious extremism is disillusionment with the British political (specifically: foreign policy) system. The question MP’s must ask themselves is; do they love their corner offices, perks, kickbacks and power more than they care about a well-adjusted, empowered Britain?

Entry Filed under: Rants