The Wardman Wire

Are we redundant as an Electorate?

“It’s the economy, stupid”. Is this the most truthful and accurate summary of politics ever captured in four words? The Labour government is on the ropes right now, they are by no means down, but they are on the ropes. We have had unpopular wars, repeated stories of massive waste, ever increasing taxation, the fear of crime has never been higher, the government missed its 24 hour deadline to save the NHS by over ten years and education, education, education is still merely the sound bite it always was. Yet here we are, with Labour in power and up to now never looking like losing an election. The only thing that has changed is the credit crunch and fears of recession. Is the electorate really that simple?

One chance for Tory power

To a certain degree I think it is. I still think Labour will be forming the next government come 2009 or 2010 (whenever it is held). The electoral system of first past the post is so massively weighted against the Tories it will take an effort of herculean proportions to overcome it. However, without trying to sound like I am hedging my bets, there is one circumstance where I think the Tories could do it: Recession.

Reports this week suggest that we now have a one in three chance of heading down the recession route within the next two years. Pretty good odds, but still the wise punter would bet against it. But if the economy does stop growing and shift in reverse gear all the parody about Darling being a terrible chancellor will be seen as absolute fact and Brown’s reputation (what is left of it) will be destroyed irreparably.

The madness of the electorate

But why do we wait until it all goes so incredibly wrong before we do anything about it – after all, the economy is largely dependent on world issues as much as it is on having a genius at No.11. Most agree that a baboon could have kept the economy afloat for much of the Brown years and most will also agree that the combined powers of all the great economists in the world could not do anything about the current and forthcoming lean years. So not only do we reward our politicians for not getting a grip on the things they can control, we punish them for not sorting out the things they cannot control. Madness!

We are to blame

It is for this reason we are sleep walking in to a totally undemocratic Europe – and I am no euro-sceptic, my arguments are not with Europe rather they are within Europe - I just place democracy ahead of any other political institution. We want a referendum on the Lisbon treaty – but we won’t get one because the government knows it will not be punished for not delivering one. We live in an elected dictatorship more so today than ever before– not because of the system, but because of the electorate.

It is this reason that we have got the NHS we deserve as we do not punish our politicians for doing anything about it. It is the reason crime rates are above what we’d like and education standards are below what we’d like. It is why we put up with the ever mounting stealth taxes, the draconian big brother infringements and the fact that we are happy to pay up for environment taxes that aren’t helping the environment. It is why we don’t care that billions, yes billions, are wasted in failed IT projects around Whitehall and beyond.

Vote. And vote on the issues come May 1st

It is neither the government’s fault nor the opposition’s fault. We decide what we want from our government and we decide when we will kick them out and on what criteria. The fact remains, if the largely independent economy is doing well then we just let them get on with it. We only have ourselves to blame. On May 1^st we will be lucky if 40% of the electorate go out to vote in the local and London elections. I implore you go out and vote – and vote on the issues: forget about the economy – it’s a shambles but there is nothing the alternatives can do about it, but they might take an interest in something that they can do something about. And don’t be afraid to take a gamble; for too long our main parties have relied on the fact that as an electorate we are far too conservative. Vote, and vote on the issues.