After what feels like a fairly hectic January, I thought I’d catch up with my blogging on two of Westminster’s current hot topics - topics which in the real world, nobody really cares about.
Much has been made of Gordon Brown’s desire to bring in the ‘Alternative Vote’ system of proportional* representation (*may actually be less proportionate than the current system) and how it is important after the expenses scandal.
Equally, Al Campbell has been getting very excited about the questions being asked about Lord Ashcroft’s tax status. He tweeted this morning it was a ‘scandal brewing nicely’
Yet I’ll be honest - after nearly four years canvassing people in Wakefield and assorted places around Yorkshire, neither of these issues has ever been mentioned more than once or twice. But you’d be forgiven for listening to the politicians on the news, particularly Labour ones, they were the most important things ever.
The problem is simple - too many in Westminster, and seemingly those in Labour’s high command, seem to think the public are stupid.
Gordon Brown was elected in 1983. He became Prime Minister in 2007. He announced his view that the voting system needed changing about 80-odd days before he has to face the country. I will buy anyone a pint who can find me a GB speech from before 2009 that talks about the need to bring in AV.
On Lord Ashcroft - and I personally think this is a distraction that could easily be settled by a simple statement and really should have been a long time ago- the public don’t care about donations. After expenses, dodgy donors barely register when, as many people have said to me, the politicians themselves are ‘crooks’.
When the CPS announced the prosecution of four people for expenses fraud, Gordon Brown took all weekend to decide whether three MPs charged with fraud should keep the whip. Contrast that with David Cameron deciding in about an hour and a half to kick Lord Hanningfield out of the party.
So, when it comes to rebuilding trust in politics, the simple question is to ask whether politicians are discussing what is relevant in Westminster, or the country. Voting systems and Lord Ashcroft are just two examples of a Government desperately searching for relevance in the depths of a bunker that only looks inward on Westminster.
One Comment
1 Tory Totty Online wrote:
Very astute commentary Nick.
All true of course. This government really do think the British people are stupid, and of course some of them, (mainly Labour supporters) arguably are.
However, the rest of us are surely wise enough to see through these distractive measures and the childish offerings of Campbell Claret