Why Democracy?

Just when you thought public discourse couldn't sink to new depths of witlessness, it does just that. Proof came with one of the offerings on last night's Why Democracy? series on the Beeb.

The production that concerns us was undertaken by a shower called the "Ministry of Truth" (not the excellent Unity, but a bunch of sixth formers, and some camera-happy bloke from the LSE) who set out fearlessly to demonstrate that All Politicians Are Evil Liars. Why? Because they're politicians of course! Different breed you know. Haven't you heard that politicians lie? It's what they do. It's all they do and we The People (TM) need to do something to get them bang to rights. The vehicle for these lofty philosophical sentiments is a Private Members' Bill named The Misrepresentation of the People Act [sic - it's not an Act until it receives Royal Assent] which is to be introduced, apparently, by Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price. There's also an article on the First Post here.

But back to the programme.

This consisted mainly of interviews with politicians that comprised the filming of their facial expressions when they were presented with a copy of this "Act" and cutting into the worst "jazzy" music heard since the party conference season ended. Yeah! Like, did you see the look on his face? He was terrified that my pisspoor scribblings are going to out him as a liar, which he is, because he's an MP (see above).

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Sir Philip Mawer actually had a go at taking the whole charade seriously, and said that the bulk of complaints he received were over the "actions of Ministers" which Mr LSE said gravely "spoke volumes in itself." Really? What were the complaints about? Are we inferring that because a Minister did something that you disapprove of he should be prosecuted for it?

The interview with Neil Hamilton (of cash-for-questions fame) acting all concerned about the apparent evil activities of MPs once they get elected did provide an unintentional moment of comedy, however. Neil, dude. It's called projection.

Basically, Mr LSE was asking us to forget that representative politics is a complex form of dispute resolution where myriad interests, allegiances, personal experiences, local concerns and views on national and international issues all collide just as the MPs do in the voting lobbies. Forget that to operate effectively politicians have to negotiate, compromise, and do deals with others within their party, with civil servants and with private interests. Forget about people's competing notions about what constitutes the common good, and also - yes- forget that at the end of all this the politicians have to do and say things that might serve them to get elected. Forget that all this is reported by a media increasingly following its own self-serving agenda to portray themselves as the arbiter of what is advisable and what isn't without any sort of responsibility or accountability.

Forget all these complexities. In these days of Jeremy Paxman, Comment is Free, 24 hour news, and a press concerned with rushing out a cheap headline about "gaffes" or an MP's private life, a "lie" is now "an opinion I don't agree with."

If this is the dominant discourse in politics today, then the question Why Democracy? is aptly put.

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 11 Oct 2007 9:24 AM. Permalink