I didn’t
watch last night’s TV Election Debate (I was at a meeting), but I think I’d
caught up with most of it by breakfast time. It was, of course, all a little
artificial but I thought that Nicola Sturgeon gave a pretty effective lesson in
how to challenge the government’s record in office.
I went to
hear Owen Jones speak last October as part of Bristol’s brilliant “Festival of
Ideas”. This is what I wrote on my blog at that time:
"Over the past year or so, I’ve
become a great admirer of Owen Jones’s writing (he’s a regular columnist in The
Guardian). Yes, he’s left-wing. Yes, he’s young (30!). But he’s also incredibly
bright… and he talks an awful lot of sense (well, in my view at least). He’s
recently written a book –
“The Establishment: And How
They Get Away with It” – and this formed the basis of the session. He talked
for an hour (the first half an hour about the things included in the book and
then another 30 minutes of questions-and-answers). He’s a remarkable and very
gifted young man. He’s the sort of person who has the ability to express
concerns on behalf of many of us who have become disillusioned with
“establishment politics”. With certain exceptions, he doesn’t have a particularly
high regard for our current batch of politicians (of whatever party)… in a
recent article in the Guardian, he described them as “technocratic, rootless, soulless; a
professionalised morass of time-servers who see ministerial posts as
springboards to nice little earners on corporate boards; manoeuvring constantly
not on the basis of political principle but for shameless
self-advancement”!
There was nothing
particularly startling (or new) in what he said last night (eg. lobbyists
who fund the thinktanks that influence the government, or the owners who
appoint the editors who set the political agenda, or the tax accountants who
get seconded to the civil service that decides how much their clients will pay), it’s just that I found myself
agreeing with point after point he was making (and so did the vast majority of
the full-house attending last night). His talk was very much a “call to arms” –
to scrutinise the powerful (the corporations, the politicians
etc) in these austere times and to redress the balance away from the poor, who
are all too often (according to politicians and much of the media) blamed for
our current financial predicament. Amen to that!
We all need people who make
us think, who give us hope, who challenge us… and who encourage us to make our
voice heard.”
Well,
I’ve now read his book and would highly recommend it – whatever your own
political leanings. I can almost certainly guarantee this: it will make you
angry... and frustrated.
Last September, I wrote a blogpost about my political
frustrations. This is the opening paragraph: “Somehow, last weekend, after the Scottish Referendum which saw a 84.5%
voter-turnout, I was heartened to read articles from a couple of journalists
making observations such as: ‘This campaign wasn’t about politicians persuading
people how to vote, but people persuading politicians…’ and ‘On
both sides of the referendum, people were energised by an astonishing
proposition: take everything you're used to in politics and imagine you could
put it to one side and start again. At that, the people did the talking and
politicians were forced to listen’”.
The following day, I joined the Green
Party.
I don’t
pretend that this will change the world or that lots of other people will be
persuaded to do likewise. Indeed, with the continuation of a
“first-past-the-post” electoral system, many might view my Green vote as a
“wasted vote”.
I would
disagree.
BUT I
would like to think that, with a General Election only a matter of some 30 days
hence, maybe, just maybe, there’s still time for people to be shaken into
voting for POLICIES rather than knee-jerk party politics?
Afterall,
the SNP lost the Scottish Referendum – although you’d never think so in the
aftermath that has seen them surge in terms of support. Whatever your political
allegiances, perhaps for the first time for many of us, I think people REALLY
did see through the last-minute panic measures of the Big Two parties… and came
to realise that, DESPITE all the efforts of the press and the major political
forces, the views of ordinary PEOPLE could actually start to make a difference.
For example, although I absolutely abhor UKIP’s policies, I entirely
acknowledge their right to be heard. For many people, voting UKIP in the
European parliamentary elections was a protest against the cosy politics of the
London-centric, Westminster village… and it really scared the major parties. I
think the Greens, too (especially here in the south-west), have been
justifiably gaining a lot of support from people who see them as speaking up
for them.
I don’t
know about you, but when I watch or listen to “Prime Minister’s Question” each
Wednesday, it just makes me weep. I find the insults and exchanges from both
sides utterly embarrassing and depressing.
It shouldn’t be like this. We need it
to change. We need to make politicians listen to the electorate.
To paraphrase Owen Jones, we need to
prevent the Establishment from continuing to get away with it!
Perhaps, over
the coming days leading up to the General Election, I might post a few quotes from
Owen Jones’s book via facebook - NOT to annoy you (hopefully) or to persuade
you, but simply to make you think twice before you vote.
Now, there’s a challenge!
Photo: from the Huffington Post
