Politics is more like Upstairs Downstairs

I have come to quite a decisive mind change regarding British politics.

No, I am not going to change who I vote for, things have not – quite – got that bad.

And I do not think this will be a General Election that offers a political sea-change that will last a decade, as in 1979 and 1997.

In fact whoever wins this election is, in my opinion, unlikely to win the next.

And I always said the gap between Labour and Tory would get closer and closer the nearer we got to voting day.

What I do think is that fewer people will vote because more and more people are fed up with politics generally and the political system in particular. Neither party seems to listen much or care much.

Apart that is from their image and that tiny percentage of ‘don’tknows’ who sit in the middle. The rest of us can pay our taxes and go hang. Our views are either ignored or treated with contempt.

Who cares about policies? On Europe, which I support, we are promised votes on treaties then denied votes. On the banks, we bail them out, are told there will be tough action and hey-ho, before we can work out our tax increase they are paying themselves huge bonuses again. And talking of taxes, it would appear that only little people pay taxes, while some of those who bankroll political parties are what is quaintly known as ‘non-doms’.

Then there is election expenses.

While a few members have been admirable many more have not and some have behaved disgracefully.

Yet, so far not one MP has been punished and many still behave as though we electors have a bloody cheek even asking how they spend our money on themselves.

All of this, and much more, has led to me changing my mind over Proportional Representation. I have always opposed PR, not universally but in this country, as it resolved no visible electoral difficulties and would lead inevitably to minority governments and power sharing sealed behind closed doors after the election.

What now seems more important is to break the grip the two major parties have on all aspects of power, which has led to their arrogance and contempt for the British public. Their vision of democracy is one where the electorate can only decide on whose turn it is to be in charge of the gravy train.

I would like to think that a low turn-out might be a salutary lesson but my guess is that they will not care, so long as they are back in their cosy club, affectionately known as the House of Commons.

So I now support PR as a way of breaking that vice-like grip on power and of bringing smaller parties to the party.

It will also more fairly reflect the way people vote and is more likely to regenerate interest in the political system. There are risks, of decisions on who is to govern being taken behind closed doors after an election and of pacts breaking down at the first sign of trouble. Candidates of far-right parties could also find themselves with MPs.

But these risks are outweighed by the need to break the hold of the Labour and Conservative parties at present, to allow more wide-ranging views to be heard and, quite simply, to allow the voters to be heard.

At the moment we are like the servants below stairs, where we provide everything but are not allowed to participate in anything.

I hope minority parties and Independents will call for such a change and say now that they will give a commitment to change the voting system as part of any pact they may form.

Otherwise it will be business as usual, with just a few more Mad Hatters at the tea party.

As Lord Acton once said: ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

We are not there yet, but it is on the horizon.