I am often accused of being a cynic, hardcore anti-politics type, when of course I am not being accused of being a avid/rabid Fox News aficionado. (which as I get Virgin not Sky is unlikely) I accept and understand that it is very hard for some people to think outside of their political Paradigm. Being confronted by people who can think for themselves is not what the politicos want, they want you to be a part of their club.
Politics like the rest of the world is changing fast, just like people with odd sexual fantasies are now able to easily contact other oddballs with similar odd thoughts and find joint reinforcement, so too we are in the middle of something similar in politics. The fetishisation of politics if you like.
I think this process still has a long way to go, but I think the age of coalitions is here to stay like it or not, the question is how to deal with it so it does not devalue the democratic process and turn it into a farce.
The first test is that the electorate has the tools to remove a government without the resort to violence. The electorate have quite rightly worked out that we are now in a position where the legal framework mainly emitting from outside the UK in the form of the EU is chaining the politicos to a certain path regardless of their vote. It is in essence being diluted. This is a very dangerous paradox. Votes have to have value for democracy to function in practice not in the imagination.
It seems to me since 1972 when we joined the ECC/EC/EU and soon to be EU superstate, we have gone down a path of continental legalism and abandoned except in the criminal law, common law which is a process of constant evolution of law and practice through judgments made in courts.
We need to bring back into the democratic sphere Civil Law so jurys that are the ultimate in democratic action can shape once again the world we find ourselves in. Yes they will muck up and get it wrong, jury's are not perfect but over time through trial and error the right path will be arrived at. Allow them once again to judge and award damages.
Yes we will live in fear of Lawyers or gangsters with briefcases as P. J. O'Rourke correctly described them, but so what. I would sooner take on a speculative Lawyer who I can answer back in open court than a politico who either courts me or more often ignores me.
Added bonus with all this of course would be less politics and a more relevant political process. If I were to invent something that goes on to be found to be harmful to the public good I would be found out by the courts and have to give up any wealth earned through its manufacture, at the moment through limited liability and insurance I walk away with the money. Do you think bankers would have been more careful of the risks they were running under my preferred model of politics and law?
As I have said before the Internet is going to change things beyond what is presently imaginable. The politicos will work hard to stop it doing so, all monopolies will fight hard to hold onto their rights and privileges, but I am confident they will be swept away in the end too.
The whole politico industry that has mushroomed over the past decades is based on the idea that we can through a set of words regulate and legislate our way to a better world. This stupid and pretty much falsified theory is nearing its end, the money has been looted and we are running on empty.
Its time for a new model.
