Blog 5 - We need more of a say (1)

Standard header - In these blogs, a current political event is illuminated by reference to the basic relationships explained in ‘Us, Politics and The System.’ The plan is to do at least one, once a week, on Fridays, probably with more inbetween.

Here in the UK, people are furious about Starmer’s inaction on Israel’s mass killings in Gaza. And furious about him not improving public services enough, and refusing to do the obvious thing of making it possible by taxing the rich fairly. I’ll say more about those particular issues in upcoming blogs but the big issue is that we don’t actually get a say. We just get one vote for an MP every four or so years, just choosing that person and their party’s promises over a huge range of issues. Then their leader gets dictatorial powers and all the talk is of what they will or won’t do.

We rail against it all on social media but we feel, correctly, that we are powerless, except for being able to vote differently next time, probably let in a worse party, and have no power over them either.

When the MP’s we elect challenge the leader/elected dictator, that’s seen as something radical when it should be the norm, because we shouldn’t leave it all to one person.

We need more of a say. Protesting on the streets is not much use. Though the right to do so is important, we just fill the streets for a few hours, and placards and chants leave the actual institutions and processes of power and action untouched. We need more. This blog will continue this argument over the days ahead, with ideas for what we need to do to get more of a say in what’ s done and not done.

Standard footer - Comments are not being offered in this blog. Reader’s reflections are best spread outwards, to somebody else the reader knows, as written about in ‘How To Talk Politics With Each Other’ at https://www.uspoliticsandthesystem.org/_files/ugd/e8d212_1f348918923e4f33bac1b09b314affbb.pdf