Taking the Party out of Politics

Being an MP:

It's supposed to be you representing your constituents, checking on the quality of new laws, holding the government to account, and doing a good job.

It's actually a process of trying to find your way and to organise your time, getting ordered around and told how to vote, and then getting dropped by your party or voted out.

It's supposed to be you working with the system to make things better.

It's actually you working against the system, to do your best to make things better - DESPITE the system.

It's supposed to be you doing the right thing. 

It's actually you doing what your political party tells you to do.

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It's supposed to be good people, deciding to do their bit, making the world a bit better, representing local needs and preferences.

It's actually career politicians, supported by a national party. 

It's actually a really big personal and financial risk.

It's actually just producing people who are already indebted to a national party before they start.

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The 5 Impossible Puzzles Bonus Season highlights different structural challenges with the way our electoral and political system is supposed to work.

The fifth puzzle is the Impossible Puzzle for Parliament and Government.

• Government is trying to make things happen. 
• Parliament is trying to make sure that those things are reasonable, and that they are in all of our interests. Parliament is supposed to be checking up on the Government, but the same political party which chose the Prime Minister and the other Ministers who make up the Government, also has a majority in Parliament. Of course, that is why that party got to choose the Government. 

But the Impossible Puzzle is that Parliament is dominated by the same party as the Government which it is supposed to be checking up on. That’s like not having an independent umpire or referee, at any sporting event, and it’s just not objective enough.  

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The 5 Impossible Puzzles Bonus Season highlights different structural challenges with the way our electoral and political system is supposed to work.

The fourth puzzle is the Impossible Puzzle for Representative Governments.

This is about how our national governments very often receive less than 50% of the national vote. Which means that more than 50% of the people who voted, actually voted AGAINST the government, not for the government.

How can we claim to be living in a representative democracy, if about a third our representatives were elected with less than 50% of the votes in each of their constituencies, and then if our national government was elected with less than 50% of the national vote, with most people voting for other parties?

[N.B. ALL national governments in the UK have received less than 50% of the votes, since 1935.]

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The 5 Impossible Puzzles Bonus Season highlights different structural challenges with the way our electoral and political system is supposed to work.

The third puzzle is the Impossible Puzzle for Representatives. 

If you are elected on the basis of a set of promises (your manifesto), then only some of the people in your constituency voted for that manifesto. How is it then possible to be fair, and even-handed, and to represent the needs of every one of your constituents? Even the ones who didn’t vote for you.

To be responsible to the people who voted for you, you should really deliver on what you said you would do, in your Manifesto. But to represent everyone in your constituency, you should also respond to the needs and wants of all of the other voters – including all the ones who wanted different things, and who voted against you.

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The 5 Impossible Puzzles Bonus Season highlights different structural challenges with the way our electoral and political system is supposed to work.

The second puzzle is the Impossible Puzzle for Voting.

This puzzle comes down to the fact that our First Past the Post voting system means that it is the candidate with most votes who gets elected, not the candidate with a majority of the votes. For example, if there are three candidates, and one of the candidates gets 40% of the vote, whilst the other two candidates get 35% and 25%, then it is the candidate with 40% of the vote who gets elected.  

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The 5 Impossible Puzzles Bonus Season highlights different structural challenges with the way our electoral and political system is supposed to work.

The first puzzle is the Impossible Puzzle for Voters.

This puzzle is the impossible challenge which we are trying to master, by trying to achieve three things with one vote –

·        choose a good local representative,

·        from a political party which looks as though it could form a competent national government,

·        and which appears to have a good set of policies (what we call a Manifesto), to do the sorts of things which we think should be done. 

All three things. Once every five years. With just one vote.

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This is a special bonus episode, providing you with a summary of some of the key ideas we have covered during series one, and focusing on the 5 Impossible Puzzles of our political system.  

The Impossible Puzzle for Voters: 3 things, 1 vote, once every 5 years

·        a good local representative,

·        a political party which looks competent, and

·        a good Manifesto

The Impossible Puzzle for Voting:

Our First Past the Post voting system means that it is the candidate with most votes who gets elected, not the candidate with a majority of the votes. This means that we can end up electing the 'wrong' candidate

The Impossible Puzzle for Representatives

To be responsible to the people who voted for you, you should really deliver on your Manifesto. 

But to represent everyone in your constituency, you should also respond to all voters – including all the ones who wanted different things, and who voted against you.

The Impossible Puzzle for Representative Governments

ALL national governments in the UK have received less than 50% of the votes, since 1935.

Which means that more than 50% of the people who voted, actually voted AGAINST the government.

How is that a representative democracy?

The Impossible Puzzle for Parliament and Government

Parliament is supposed to be checking up on the Government, but the same political party which chose the Government, also has a majority in Parliament. That’s just not objective enough.  

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Manifestos are declarations of what a candidate (or party) plans to do, if elected. If we vote for a candidate, and with that vote also vote for a party, then we are also voting to approve that list of promises.

After the election, the list of promises in a Manifesto is turned into a plan of action, in the Queen's Speech. 

After that, we should expect to see the government put those promises into action.

However, Governments are not actually very good at delivering on the promises in their manifestos. And they sometimes deliver stuff which wasn't in their manifestos. Not just small stuff. Big stuff, too.

We vote for the job lot, the whole list of promises in a Manifesto. Does that translate into us giving the government a mission to deliver on each one of those promises, individually? Does it become a Mandate?

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Parliament or Government?

Many people might think that they are the same thing, but they really aren’t.

If we are clear about the differences, we can identify problems with how the system isn’t working in our best interests.

Parliament has to look closely at (scrutinise) how the Government is running things, and at what the Government is planning to do, to make sure that decisions are open and transparent, workable and efficient, and fair and non-discriminatory.

The Government is responsible for deciding:

•How the country is run

•Managing things day to day

•Setting taxes

•Choosing what to spend public money on

•Choosing how best to deliver public services

Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK. Parliament can create (or end) any law.

The Government is the group of people who are responsible for running the country.

Parliament looks closely at the Government’s plans, and monitors the way the Government is running things, to hold the Government to account for its actions… independently?

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