Time for britain to get serious about politics | thearticle

“Be careful what you wish for” is among the most depressing aphorisms in the English language. It’s a real downer on passion, enthusiasm, ambition and, ultimately, progress. My headmaster

wrote in his final report: “Alain will go far if he can learn to curb his enthusiasm.” He had a very stiff upper lip. Thursday’s General Election is a moment to grasp as far as you can

reach. It could prove to be a turning point, one of those moments that comes round every 40 or 50 years when the wheel spins and catapults our lives into a different direction. First of all,

go out and vote. For all its shortcomings, the process by which each of us chooses the person to whom we entrust our government for the next five years is priceless. They may screw up, they

may disappoint, but they need our permission to do so. They work for us even if they’re not as accountable as they should be. That can be fixed. I’m coming to that. Britons are among the

fewer than 10% of the world’s population that live in a, more or less, full democracy. Half the world is ruled by autocrats. You can argue, with some justice, that our electoral system is

flawed. All votes may be equal, but some are more equal than others. If you don’t vote, others will. Don’t complain if you don’t get what you wish for. Politicians will always play to those

they think will hand them power. For the same reasons that some people won’t vote at all, I’m exasperated by the state of our country and our inability to change things. It’s not that

nothing works. That’s a self-defeating (and self-fulfilling) exaggeration. Mediocrity can become an expectation. We have become so accustomed to failure that we stop trying, stop expecting,

like England football fans that leave the game before the final whistle. We’re better than that. If we’re to up our game we need to change how we play it. Here are eight suggestions, basic

propositions on how to boost the democratic process and make Britain work better by doing things differently. * MAKE DEMOCRACY REWARDING. Register every citizen when they turn 18(or 16, if

the voting age comes down). Make voting easier to encourage young people — but also those with mobility issues, minorities and the poor — to vote. Electoral fraud is a miniscule problem,

easily contained. * MORE DEVOLUTION. Hand power to the people who have a vested interest in making things work. Britain is absurdly centralised. Except for elected mayors, local authorities

are largely powerless, mostly dancing to Westminster’s tune. The Treasury, the archetypal central bureaucracy, in particular, will fight this tooth and nail. But you make people responsible

by giving them responsibility. * ELECTORAL REFORM. The first-past-the-post system has its benefits. It offers clarity. But Britain veers between a tyranny of the minority, where all reform

can be blocked, and a tyranny of the majority where winner-takes-all walks over the losers. A form of proportional representation was rejected in the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum. But

the likely irreversible fragmentation of politics provides an opportunity to take another look. * GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY. The British Prime Minister can do pretty much anything and, usually,

get away with it. With a large majority, such as the one Starmer is likely to be handed, he or she controls the House of Commons and has a virtually free hand. Once in power, governments

don’t like being restrained. They have a tool box of constitutional tricks to ram legislation through: secondary legislation, Henry VIII clauses, prorogation. Give the House of Lords more

power. Better still, replace it with a representative assembly that better reflects the country at large. * GET SERIOUS ABOUT GOVERNING. MPs who enter the Commons, understandably, are out

for the main chance. But too many see climbing the greasy pole as a game. Ministerial jobs become just the next rung in the ladder. The turnover in the Cabinet over the past ten years has

resembled a (not so) merry-go-round. Introduce minimum ministerial terms, proper handovers between changes and basic training. * DITCH OUR ATTACHMENT TO THE MYTH OF THE GIFTED AMATEUR. Make

the Commons more efficient. Give MPs better resources to research and do their constituency work. MPs barely read legislation. They’re slaves to the Whips. This isn’t an argument for more

career politicians. It’s an argument for better ones. Democracy shouldn’t be a cut-price enterprise. * FIX THE LOTTERY OF CONSTITUENCY BOUNDARIES. The size of a constituency is determined

not by those eligible to vote, but by how many voters are registered. This is why young citizens, people who rent as opposed to owning their home, or ethnic minorities are under-represented

in Parliament. This is a self-perpetuating vicious circle. * MOVE THE PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE. 10 Downing Street is a ridiculous place to run the country from. Apart from virtually

guaranteeing that everybody gets sick when the next pandemic hits, its warren of little cubby-holes and offices is wholly unsuited for the task. Downing Street was originally gifted to Sir

Robert Walpole, the country’s first Prime Minister, by King George II. It was subsequently knocked into other neighbouring buildings. By 1735 somewhat humble lodgings looking out onto

Downing Street (occupied by a Mr Chicken) had been incorporated into something grander. Our disillusionment with politics and politicians (and who can blame us) blinds us to the fact that

our future is in their hands. They need the time, the space and the resources to do the job properly. No other comparable country asks its leader to work from a collection of outsize broom

cupboards knocked together. Britain is no longer taken as seriously as it should be because we no longer take ourselves and the serious business of governing seriously. If the country is to

stop spinning its wheels, that has to change. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one

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