Can everyone stop saying that supporting this or that party is “dangerous”?
The housing crisis is, in my view, the deepest and widest crisis faced by the country.
There is no prospect of economic growth until housing is fixed, even if energy costs came down, but there’s no chance of that either.
Whatever the root causes of our housing led poverty, it cannot and will not be fixed until we the people are allowed to elect a functioning government.
But that’s an outcome that seems to have been removed from us, no matter who we vote for.
It’s the disingenuous divisiveness by politicians on all sides that kills constructive discussion. Today’s winner for creating division is Keir Starmer.
The only thing that’s truly “dangerous” to democracy is when the electoral process is undermined or subverted, and/or when elected governments appear powerless for reasons they can’t explain. I suspect these two problems are related.
ANY party that wins seats in an election (assuming it’s a free and fair one) is as legitimate as any other.
That’s the whole point of “democracy”. We can vote for any candidate we like, left, right or loony, and tough tits if the establishment doesn’t like it.
No MP, far left, far right or far centre is dangerous. They were elected by more voters in their constituency than any other candidate making them equally as valid as any other MP.
Calling each other “dangerous” or a “threat to democracy” or any other fear-inducing but baseless name is the only thing that’s anti-democratic.
For the record: My view is that the UK does not currently have ANY electable party.
This is a systemic failure, not a political one.
If, as many suspect and worry, there’s a push for excessive control of discussion and criticism, anything which curbs people’s ability to express their views, fears, criticisms and ideas (within the law) then that is by far the most dangerous thing happening.
The moment you feel in fear of your liberty for expressing yourself (without illegal incitement) then your freedom has already gone; you are already curtailing your views, and are thus no longer free to debate without fear.
When that happens, our ability as an electorate to alter outcomes is gone.
The one observation I would make is that we appear, as a country, to have lost the ability to have the kind of discussions that used to happen all over.
Both the main UK parties have engaged in restrictive, divisive practices, almost as if it doesn’t matter who’s in power.
They keep us fighting each other, to ensure we don’t unite and change the system.
The civil service appears to operate as it sees fit, and ignores the government. The Cabinet Secretary would appear to be more powerful than the Prime Minister.
Successive PM’s all the way back as far as John Major (of whom I was not a fan) seem to be nothing more than a Punch and Judy style distraction for us all to rage about, while behind the scenes the real power continues as it wishes with impunity.
There are a few impressive individual politicians on all sides, but there is no one on the horizon with the sheer leadership to solve this political, governmental and now economic stagnation that’s draining us all of the will to live, figuratively and sadly literally in some cases.
Which means nothing is going to change, based on the current political offerings.
Which is the worst news.
So what can we do?
Three options I see:
- Nothing. Concede defeat as we slide into a dystopian disaster that apparently we couldn’t have stopped. Conserve energy for making the most of what we can out of what remains. Or leave.
- Keep complaining and campaigning for political change. Debate vigorously in the hope that it will lead to a better outcome at the next election, and hope as hard as we can that something genuinely new emerges. (More of the same)
- Rise above political divisions and unite in different ways. Restore mature debate. In other words, stop fighting.