Time to fix Britain’s broken democracy

Tuesday November 1, 2011

Martin Cullip says our politicians routinely ignore the popular will. We must act to restore democracy in Britain

With a debate to discuss a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU originally tabled for the 27th of October, the corralling of a sizeable lobby by pro-referendum group, The People’s Pledge, motivated the coalition to side-step public objection by bringing it forward by three days. While the debate itself was triggered by the collection of over 100,000 signatures on the government’s e-petitions site, as promised, this re-scheduling would appear to be the only evidence that Westminster is keeping an eye on public opinion, and even then only to ignore it.

In a YouGov poll earlier this year, 61% of the public favoured a referendum on the EU with only 25% against, yet all three major parties decided to whip their MPs to vote in contravention of that view. Putting aside one’s opinion as to whether the EU is beneficial or otherwise to the country, it’s difficult to argue that an administration which ignores such a clear majority is acting in the true spirit of democracy, defined as “by the people; in which the supreme power is vested in the people”.

Unfortunately, such contortions in order to deny the electorate their say should not come as much of a surprise anymore since we are now firmly in an age where the term democracy is little more than a façade for pre-conceived authoritarian policy.

In 2002, nearly half a million people descended on London to object to the then imminent Hunting Act; they were ignored. A year later, between 750,000 and one million marched on Hyde Park in anger at the proposed war in Iraq; Tony Blair’s government carried on regardless, dodgy dossier and all.

Prior to the English smoking ban, Office of National Statistics studies showed that 67% of the public didn’t want it, while in Scotland, a Populous poll which concluded that there was a 75% disapproval rate for the implementation of their own ban was dismissed by Health Minister Andy Kerr who said “we are not running government by opinion poll”. Scotland is continuing in the same vein by pushing on with their plans for a minimum alcohol price despite Ipsos MORI finding in December that there is no public support for such a policy.

These are just a few examples. Finding instances of government forgetting their duty to at least appear to be following the public mood are increasingly apparent, and they illustrate a worrying trend for politicians to cast themselves as somehow superior, and immune to the views of a people they are elected to serve.

While it would be a seismic shift to transform the UK into a legislative environment based on multiple referenda like in Switzerland, the illusion of a free democratic country would be easier to believe if elected politicians listened to their public more, instead of sticking rigidly to their own personal beliefs and prejudices to the exclusion of all dissent, however well supported.

The current head of the coalition is David Cameron, a man who regularly regales us of the need to fix ‘broken Britain’. Perhaps his exhortations for co-operation from the public would be better received if he put his own house in order by instructing politicians to listen more to their employers when public opinion is at odds with pre-determined governmental policy, and in doing so fix the broken state of British democracy.