Communities should have more control

Western Daily Press, 19 June 2024, p. 19

As we are now well into the 21st century, and almost everyone has access to all the relevant information they need on the internet, it should not be beyond the wit of man/woman to arrange some kind of new-fangled App, or something, that would smooth the way for direct democracy, where key town, district and county level issues could be decided.

Many are feeling disempowered by the upcoming election that is bound to see Labour in control for the next five to 10 years.

Once elected to Westminster, wet-behind-the-ear politicians are lured into the shadowy world of the lobbyists who have 101 ways of influencing key decisions, and predictably we end up with policies that favour bureaucrats, industrialists, globalists and bankers, because they influence the politicians at Westminster far more effectively than we, the people, can in our constituencies.

Our MPs are paid from the public purse to represent the interests of their constituents, and direct democracy would be one way to do it.

In order to modernise democracy, we should look no further than what has been done in progressive Asian countries, who learned from us and then improved upon it.

It’s time we caught up. When you go into the voting booth there, you are given a range of options to vote on: not just your popular representative, but also the policies you want them to pursue on a given local agenda. The MP then works to achieve what the majority vote for.

This way, MPs are held to account, haughty ideologies dreamed up in the Westminster bubble are brought to earth with local realism, the corporate Lib/Lab/Con revolving door would close, and lobbyists would have to wine and dine us instead, if they want to still influence public policy.

I am fully aware that no system of governing is perfect, but with all the information available online, combined with modern technology, we could have the community in control of the decisions that most affect them.

M. Blackett

Stroud, Gloucestershire

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