Dear John,
It’s clear to anyone paying attention that the UK is in a state of permanent crisis today. New data shows that we have the highest levels of homelessness in any developed nation. We’re facing crises across the board from energy to water to prisons to health to climate to income inequality. All of this in one of the wealthiest countries on Earth.
It’s tempting to simply pin it all on the corruption and ineptitude of a single political party – the one that’s been in charge for fourteen years – and I certainly wouldn’t blame you for that. In that case, the solution is simple: just vote them out.
But what if there’s more to it? What if the bad behaviour of those politicians was encouraged by a political system that stopped working a long time ago?
In that scenario, even if a new government manages to undo some of the damage that’s been inflicted on us, there’s no guarantee any of their changes will stick.
Even more worryingly, so long as the safeguards are inadequate, there remains a risk that members of ANY government could succumb to the corrupting forces of dark money, press manipulation, and political corruption.
Perhaps then, instead of sticking plaster solutions, we should build a system that can actually pull us out of crisis for good. Create a democracy where ordinary people can hold their MPs to account and where they have more influence than giant corporations and greedy billionaires.