OK, right off the bat – though I’m no baseball player as some may already know – let me just say I’m not talking about having an actual party of course; not with the pandemic in the background (rather in the foreground) and social distancing and all. So no…..ahhhh…no no no – please don’t try and mess around with my head on this cause that’s my weakest link at this time. What I am talking about is the need for the current party structures to finally evolve/adapt in order for them to become more reflective of present day Britain. As it is now the party system – as is our entire political system – has become so stagnant that it is no longer capable of countering the many challenges we face in this day-and-age. In actual fact I personally believe as mentioned in the previous blog – that the main reason we have BREXIT now is because of peoples disenchantment for decades with politics that no longer represents their value system, add to that the distorted/contagious views driven by a combination of narrow ideology and pure lies that we are now about to land in BREXIT Territory. The situation as it stands is this in brief;
- Two dominant political parties that now seem indistinguishable in actual fact since 2016 and only keen to brawl like children in parliament to cater for their audience – nothing more/nothing less; and as the saying goes (nothing ventured nothing gained).
- The so-called Liberal parties are utterly unelectable and keen either by design or inadvertently to adapt in playing the secondary role – if/where possible – waiting for the occasional spikes in membership here and there to keep themselves hopelessly hopeful. To them I’d say this; Political parties are NOT driven by good intentions but by results and if the results are consistently bad and you’re getting comfortable working from behind, your members really need to move on and frankly so should the leadership; just cut off the jazz and stop wasting effort/resources that’s going nowhere. Invest the money in a new venture like a British version of Coca Cola or something.
- For some mysterious reason – possibly due to the saying; old habits die hard – the idea of political coalitions seems to represent a threat to some. In actual fact in my opinion coalitions are by design more Democratic and are driven in the main by compromise as we all know. Why more Democratic? Because they are a form of protection against the abuse of power. So unless there is good reason to avoid them – not in hypothesis but in reality – we should really consider them a good governance model and perhaps we can also benefit from this model by changing our own perceptions of the winner-takes-all approach to politics. Oh and by the way – just in case you’re thinking of the Conservative-LibDems coalition of 2010 – coalitions are NOT by design a guarantee of success but on the other hand success is not a term I recognise anymore when talking about British governments, what do you think?
What we need are political parties that do NOT reflect Left or Right or use terms that suggest they’re the holy grail of a particular subject matter – here are examples; (Conservative / Labour / Liberal / Green / Democratic / Republican). This is a simplistic approach to politics and does not reflect our complex human nature nor the balance needed to deal with the myriad of complex issues we face today; these brandings are nothing more than shiny objects designed to fool people into accepting a set of false choices because good politics is all about the balance of priorities. Pragmatic politics on the other hand is all about a set of values; one that is articulated in a clear vision and path – NOT meaningless branding or narrow ideological perceptions. So here are some ideas – starting with the last one I just to mentioned – of how we would think about the party of the future just to get us started and you can contribute to this list by sending in your suggestions as well and I’ll post them with your name if you like;
- A Party driven by pragmatic policies that deliver value to the entire nation – not narrow ideological perceptions that serve a segment of society.
- A Party driven by genuine values rather than focused on financial incentives and political donation of power brokers at home and thanks to systemic loopholes foreign influence / donations due in part to corrupt politicians & virtual transactions. In other words a political party however huge it may become should function like a small startup in terms of passion for the cause NOT the Cash for Cause approach; I hope I’m wrong but I fear that in BREXIT Britain these kinds of vulnerabilities will become more stark than ever before.
- A Party that is color blind in selecting leaders yet keen to genuinely represent the cultural/religious diversity of the nation not selecting colorful individuals in the lower ranks to achieve some form of false affirmation of the diversity of the party.
- A Party energized by the new generation in top ranks NOT on the sidelines – and is structured in a way that allows constant flow of talent & empowered by practical ideas/programs supported at a grassroots level. No more rigid philosophical concepts that may sound good but are unachievable or the Pyramid Approach to policy formulation.
- A Party driven by a clear value system that every member can articulate coupled with clear vision & path for the future for the country. In other words it’s a party less concerned about convenient punch lines and driven primarily by a clear vision/path & results.
- A Party keen to work with other parties when it serves the country without engaging in self serving political theatrics/partisanship – yet equally keen on ruling the country as a primary objective. In other words a party keen to lead the way when it comes to a new form of progressive politics that is about political integrity that puts country before party.
- A Party in constant self-assessment mode to ensure they’re delivering on promises and confident adjust and/or change leadership if targeted results are not achieved.
To make it short what we need is party that runs/operates as a business – and NOT any business but rather like a startup business in the way it’s keen to make a difference. Let me suggest that the Liberal Democrats – though I once was a member with a passion in this party – and UK Green party need to call it a day and perhaps merge into something more meaningful and effective rather than diluting a sector of society like myself and many others that feel left out from being properly represented in this current archaic party system. Another option would be creating an entirely new party without the baggage of the existing parties; I don’t know. What I do know is that Britain will remain locked in the past in so many ways and will be vulnerable politically to internal/external political hackers if we are to continue with the current political structures which are doing plenty of damage – the kind of damage that occurs slowly but surely – let’s call it the BREXIT Approach. A political overhaul is far overdue and time unfortunately time is no friend of ours in a world only too keen to leave drop offs by and move on.
Hope this helps.
Take care & Happy 2021.
Related Post
BREXIT Fallacies In BREXIT Britain – The Special Relationship