Any volunteers?

Exciting times are here again. The build up to the next election is always an interesting time to look at politics and more importantly politicians. No shit. But this election will be interesting because it will show whether the politicians have really grasped the second order questions rather than the first order ones. We are all familiar with the parties extolling their various policies. In the good ol days (that never really existed) the party would lay out its vision and what it wanted for the country and, more importantly how it would achieve it. The people would trust the chaps at the top to be good chaps who would stand by their policies and their vision.

But today, we are not so lucky. Its not that people do not trust their politicians, its that they do not trust the idea of politicians. The whole concept is damaged even if the individuals are trusted (many are not). The brand is damaged and anyone using that brand is damaged automatically by it. The dilemma they face is simple. The mechanisms available to the politician to put this right are the very things that people do not trust. It is like the sceptic. The sceptic says that we can know nothing. You cannot engage the sceptic because to do so requires the use of knowledge to argue the case. Crudely, it is like trying to argue the case with someone who makes the case that all arguments are invalid. You have to use ‘arguments’ to engage him and by doing so you lose because his position is all arguments are invalid. The politician faces the same problem. The tools at their disposal to rebuild the brand of politician are the very things people do not trust buy and put forward by the very people who are not believed.

On the face of it, impossible to get out of. Well, not entirely but it will require some ingenious thinking and some foresight by a collective group of people who are able to see past the short term issues. I suspect this is not the parties we see today.

There are ways out. The first one requires that someone not just stand for policies but for the second order issue of standing for politics. Not just one party, but all parties. This seems unlikely to be successful as it is the job of opposition to undermine and challenge the government. For one party to take the right stance will need support from all parties. Given that any of them agree to what is needed to be done, they will disagree on how it is to be done and the divide will undermine the outcome.

What do I mean by this? Irrespective of the policies and ‘vision’ for this country, what is needed is the vision for politics. Someone needs to stand for rebuilding the brand. Both parties need to do this. To achieve this they will not be able to function as they do today. The change in culture cannot happen from within and it will take independent external help. It cannot be done by politicians for the very reasons above. So who? There are some candidates. There are enough international bodies out there. Those who go into old dictatorships and try and put in place the skeleton of new democracy. There are international arbitrators who successfully work with the warring parties to bring peace. And finally there is the people who are governed.

What is needed is a set of rules that dictate the framework within which politicians can work that sit outside of the control of the politicians that run the country (and the administrators). The US realised this and managed it. That is not to say that the US is not subject to the nonsense we suffer with our politicians but there are things that can be learned.

A constitution that
is not drawn up by politicians.
is not changeable without referendum.
contains the basic rules on rights as well as the controls on power.
is run and controlled by a new democratic framework which must be allegiance free to any country ruling party. Whose sole purpose is to protect the constitution and run the referendums.
must be voted in by the majority of the voting population and not the majority of the people that voted.
reports and answers to only the people and the crown (strengthens the role of the monarchy and more importantly provides a modern real purpose.)

Someone who controls what it is to be a politician and what politics is. Split the governance of the system from the governance of the country.

Any volunteers?