Psephology and Dentistry — The UK’s electoral system and how brushing is no longer keeping the plaque off
With a raging toothache caused by a piece of dental equipment being left in my gum after a root canal had been done at least 20 years ago I headed for the dentist.
We trust professionals and, in the UK (noting growing differences England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) the trust is reinforced with the necessary checks and balances on the majority of us when things do go awry.
Our Parliamentary system is akin to the state of my teeth — fixed and mended time and again, serving a purpose and allowing us to eat; but there are flaws and hidden elements coming back to bite — bite us bad. But, unlike my teeth, the infection is not being treated so real action can be taken to have us go forward with certainty.
My teeth? Easy answer: extraction and build anew so can function into the next phase of life. A complicating factor — imagine no feeling in your bottom lip for the rest of your days. A sort of permanent anaesthetized lip. No feeling, no knowledge of what is about to befall your tongue.
In Parliamentary terms? We are fed what other people think we need to know. We require more feeling, more power to the Fifth Estate and social media to have true knowledge of what is going on. We have allowed anaesthetised openness as people use multiple media streams to feed us their versions of events.
There is no such thing as fake news, there is ‘my’ version and triangulated perspectives. Endless opinions but no such thing as fake facts — these are lies and propaganda.
Ask questions of everything you read
Choice is straightforward now (not just my tooth but our broken first-past-(what?which?)-post system): review — rejuvenate where appropriate — remove when necessary and rebuild properly given the future needs of good governance.
Ask these type of questions of our Parliamentary system.
What is happening with all the pieces going on inside the parties before any Parliamentary debate?
How much rot have we gotten we cannot see?
What pieces of debris are going to surface with a little more inspection?
Who is going to clear up the false promises of BREXIT, decentralisation without commensurate resources?
The mess that is our Upper House with places sold on patronage (rewarding the party faithful and not the electorate directly)?
Perhaps a strange analogy at first until thinking on the contention: Our parliamentary system is no longer fit for purpose now let alone into the future. Yes, served us well; as my teeth have done (although I wished brushed far more and undertaken the necessary oversight to ensure things did not get to the stage where action seemed so final). Technology has moved on and, despite some microphones and cameras so we can watch our MPs maintain their presence, or lack of presence, in the House, little done to look at how we can chew better and aid the digestion of decision-making.
Now evident trust slightly misplaced — Accidents happen but what of reactions and need for openness about limits and liabilities?
— Are we talking the dentist or the Parliament?
We have changed some of our Parliamentarians, same as I changed dentist. Look again at some of the people in the House — there are regular family connections to others and previous MPs.
We need fresh thinking not the sad nepotism reinforcing inequality.
Have we changed the system so our chosen Parliamentarians, our governance structures, have a better say on the wide variety of issues we face as individuals, families, communities, groups of shared interests, nations and the state of the United Kingdom?
Do we, the electorate, feel we have a system representing, managing and leading us into the future? A future none of us know but we all must strategize and plan for?
Read pieces like The Economist and ask the next level of questions; https://www.economist.com/britain/2019/04/20/the-eus-voting-system-will-help-small-parties-less-than-they-think — there are many different forms of proportional representation and virtually all are better than the first past the post system where we build in inertia
Time for change is here. My tooth was pulled out, a bridge built using new technology and building on the quality dentistry work done by other fantastic dentists (within the National Health Service in the main I add to reinforce what is great about us). I will be ready for chewing the fat with people.
What of UK governance in terms of Parliament? Other levels of governance? Technocrats accountable to? To who exactly?
Voting is only one element in democracy; let us not leave aside accountability, openness to be held accountable and show the responsibility we, the people, invest in our political process to be led and managed exceptionally well.
Do not confuse management and leadership since we have seen clear signs of incompetent managers and inept leaders these last few weeks for sure.
Extraction and rebuilding required; emphasize the solid, cut out the rot and inept and build something we all, all, can be part of and have confidence in.
Positive suggestions to come as we start on @GoGov and #changethesystem.
