We haven't had a
working government in Stormont for 2 years now.
It's a political stalemate between the 2 extremes of Irish Republicanism
(Sinn Fein) and Unionism (DUP) which are, in all probability,
irreconcilable. Especially, since the DUP hold the balance of power in
Westminster and are keeping Theresa May in office and the Conservatives in
government.
The same political
stalemate is happening in the US with the stand-off between a Republican
president threatening to close down the Government again and the Democrat-controlled
Senate refusing to fund his wall.
Then, we have the
political shambles of Brexit with Theresa May incompetently lurching from one
crisis to the next and unable to deliver a 'deal'. There is political stalemate with Europe
refusing to renegotiate and neither the Left nor the Right anywhere able to
fully grasp the reality of life outside the Parliamentary bubble for the rest
of us and deliver what we want and need and not just on Brexit.
The stagnation of
politics in the West at the present time is because we are caught between 2
irreconcilable positions, the Left and the Right, or public vs private and there
is no-one of competence, capable of stepping up and delivering a coherent and
practical alternative. (Well, apart from me!)
The other problem
is that the political structure and the policies of the Left and Right are years
out of date and do not serve the world of today. The Right dominates at
the moment because the Left have collapsed and failed to address the reasons for
this. Tony Blair did attempt to move
Labour from the old policies of the 70’s that had kept them out of office and
towards the middle but unfortunately, he kept going in that direction and ended
up more right-wing than some Tories.
The Right believe
in capitalism, especially Free Market Capitalism which has been the doctrine
since the 1980’s. It doesn’t matter that
it collapsed in 2008; those on the Right still refuse to acknowledge its
failure or to acknowledge that it worked best when it came with a social
conscience as it did in the time of people like Cadbury and Rowntree.
The political
doctrines of the left and right were drawn up when the parties were formed, either
in response to or opposition to, events or social and political conditions as
Labour did after the Second World War when the populace demanded change. The Welfare State was set up to address the
demand for better health care, education and housing and to provide a safety net
against poverty. However, the
Conservative Party detest the Welfare State and have been doing their best to
dismantle it since then. Their belief in
the private over public is best seen in the way they sold off and privatised
all the nationalised industries.
Here in the North,
Sinn Fein are becoming strangulated by their ‘ideals’. Their refusal to sit in Parliament was a
policy drawn up a hundred years ago as a protest against British rule in
Ireland. Since they have signed and accepted
the Good Friday Agreement, they have accepted British rule in the North so why
are they not taking their seats? They
also have a problem with the oath to the Queen but let’s be realistic about it,
would anyone think they really meant it? Or they could do what Tony Benn always
did and cross their fingers. If they
were in Parliament, they could at least drum up support against the oath from
other Parliamentarians and get rid of it altogether. Ironically, if they had taken the seven seats
they won after the last election, they could have made life very difficult for
the Government and since they were able to change their position on the EU from
anti to pro within a couple of years, I don’t see why they can’t make that
change.
The doctrines of
the Left and Right, like Sinn Fein and the DUP are based on certain
ideals. Each has their own belief in
what the world should be from their perspective and they try and shape it to
fit in with those ideals. That’s not to
say that having ideals is necessarily a bad thing but when it translates into
policies and dogma that are unchangeable and cause political stagnation then it
becomes a problem.
The politic world
is ripe for change, a middle way has to be found between left and right, a
balance between public and private because as history has shown us, neither of
these options has worked when put into practice. It is time to abandon the
doctrines of the past and move towards a new way of working. Brexit has shown
that issue-based politics has driven a wedge through the left and the right but
it also offers hope of a better way of working in the future. Unfortunately, (or fortunately?) it would mean
the parties within Westminster would have to abandon their dogmatic political
position and work to deliver a solution where politicians would work together
to resolve the issues instead of trying to impose a party-based solution more
concerned with keeping a government in power but which cannot deliver in the
long term.
We need a complete
restructuring of the political landscape.
We should decide on the issues, healthcare, housing, transport,
security, education, what are we willing to support through taxation, what kind
of society do we want and what are we willing to do to create it? In abandoning party politics and moving
towards issue-based politics, we would be dealing with the actual problems,
free from the dogma and rhetoric of the past and instead, focussed on finding a
solution to today’s problems. It would also mean a reduction in government and an
end to cronyism and corporate predominance.
There should also be
rules in place so that only people who actually live in a constituency have the
right to stand for election in that constituency. This would get rid of the
London-centric politics which has split the country and left those outside the
London and Parliamentary bubble feeling disconnected and forgotten.
While many are
worried about Brexit, we should see it as an opportunity to redraw the
political landscape. Once Britain is
free from Brussels, we have the chance to start over, to wipe the slate clean
and rebuild society and the political structure. Margaret Thatcher once said ‘there is no such
thing as society’, this was a very famous quote but it was only part of what
she said, she went on to say, ‘There are individual men and women, and there
are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after ourselves and
then look after our neighbour. It is
time to look after ourselves.
Change will come,
the disaffection of the people with politicians and the political structure is
evident across the world. We have hit an
impasse and Brexit has revealed the failure of the Left and Right to find a way
forward or to offer a solution. If we
are to move forward, then we have to address the realities of the world today
and create a political structure that serves the needs of the people and the
country first. The day of party politics
is coming to an end, change can be frightening but with a little courage and
imagination, there is no telling what kind of society we could create. All it takes is the will to make it happen, we
can be idealistic and wish for a better world but at the end of the day, it is
up to us to create it. Idealism does have
its place, it can and does inspire us to action, great men like Mahatma Ghandi
were idealistic and achieved so much but it was achieved through action and by
facing and dealing with the realities of the day.
Idealism fails when
it doesn’t deal with reality as we have seen only too well in the last century.
Albert Einstein once
said, ’Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow’. I think we should learn from yesterday, act today and tomorrow will take care of
itself’.
A few weeks ago, a
bomb went off in Derry; a stark reminder of what can happen when the ‘ideals’
of the past, impinge on the present reality.
When vacuums open up in politics and leadership (quite often between
their ears!), the worst elements step in and try to fill them.
