Political system is utterly bankrupt

Western Daily Press, 12 September 2024, p. 16

I was delighted to see David Gardner’s thoughtful letter on party politics and their woeful limitations (Letters, September 6).

It gives me hope that there is a more general waking-up process underway, and that we are at least part-way towards the complete abolition of the moribund party-political system.

The great mystic and political activist Simone Weil (1909–1943) summed it up very well in her prophetic 1943 treatise, On the Abolition of All Political Parties, when she wrote:

"People have progressively developed the habit of thinking, in all domains, only in terms of being “in favour of” or “against” any opinion, and afterwards they seek arguments to support one of these two options. This is an exact transposition of the [political] party spirit…. Political parties are a marvellous mechanism which ensures that not a single mind can attend to the effort of perceiving, in public affairs, what is good, what is just, what is true."

In the case of all new MPs ‘learning the rules’ of the party-political system, they have a stark choice. They can either vote according to their conscience on every issue – in which case they can almost certainly kiss 'goodbye' to any future chance of promotion in their political career, and will quite possibly be de-selected next time by their centralised party leadership’s autocratic regime.

Alternatively, they can simply parrot the party line and become a voting lobby-fodder robot who votes with their party, whatever the line might be and whatever they might themselves privately think.

Apocryphally, in the days of Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell, this manifested as all Labour MPs checking their pager before saying anything in public interviews.

I can remember a few MPs over the years who were in the former category and always voted according to their conscience – and what a breath of fresh air they were! I say this irrespective of whether they were left, right or centre.

So, it's the tribalist, loyalty-demanding party-political system that is the problem; and the day can't come soon enough when all party leaderships allow their MPs to have a free vote on every issue; for this is the only way in which, within the existing parliamentary system, there's any chance of policy-making reflecting more accurately the will of the general population, and the ethical compass of our elected MPs.

But power-obsessed politicians addicted to elective dictatorship will, alas, enable such a change to happen over their dead bodies. This is why our political system is utterly bankrupt, and held in such contempt, or indifference, by increasing numbers of us.

Richard House

Stroud, Gloucestershire