The only way in which democracy can claim to represent the people is if the people (such a wonderful, vague term) participate and stay informed. And by God, is it frustrating sometimes.
Question Time, one of the better presentations of political debate on the BBC, was in Edinburgh last night. And this means they had the SNP on board – in particular, Alex Salmond, leader of the aforementioned party. The SNP have this wonderful platform that independence will fix all of Scotland’s problems (with oil money), and unfortunately seem to equate popularism with policy. Funnily enough, Labour often make the same mistake. And since all the major parties are represented on Question Time any Scottish show tends to disintegrate into a tub-thumping session about independence.
Iraq doesn’t help either. There is nothing that unites the audience more than a statement on how we shouldn’t be in Iraq. And both the SNP (and the Liberal Democrats, to a lesser extent) enjoy playing this card too often. The problem is, of course, not their statement that we shouldn’t be there, but the fact that they’d rather play to the crowd than debate the issues.
This can only make more voters cynical. Yet, politicians don’t care – when Hardeep Singh Kohli criticised the politicians for such things the Labour peer Baron Foulkes responded by telling him to stand himself should he be so concerned. Arrogance and popularism: a wonderful mix.
But never mind, because this morning we have a new bogey-man: Muslims (yes, again). As per every lobbying group, the Muslim Council are trying to make schools pay special attention to the religious needs of Muslims. And yet who can blame them when the Labour government promotes academies run by Christian fundamentalists like Vardy? The real question should be why are we pandering to those who believe in fairy tales? No doubt the screaming tabloids will ignore such things, however.
