There was an article in the Guardian recently accusing climate scientists of being too soft and gentle , too tentative, not clear enough about climate change/ the unfolding environmental catastrophe. Someone wrote in in-response saying that they thought the problem was more about the ignorance of politicians.
I think both views are naive – if you have read “Collapse” by Jared Diamond, you will know that one of the key predictors (historically) of whether a society will collapse catastrophically is how unequal it is: the more unequal, the more likely collapse is. His hypothesis is that when people can see and empathise with other people’s problems, they are more likely to respond in a helpful way (e.g. maybe sacrifice a bit of their own wealth and power for the common good). That means the more distant they are and the less they feel connected with the hoi-polloi, the less likely they are to do anything and the more likely they are to assume that their wealth and power will protect them from what is coming.
The way our political system works means that when you join it you become a member of the 1% who own (or more truthfully, have appropriated) 50% of the worlds wealth:-
- 86k salary
- 100k per year expenses is pretty normal (mostly for stuff you would have to pay for out of your salary)
- Pension for life after even one term as an MP
- Many MPs earn tens of thousands for “consultancy”
- Very lucrative non-executive director roles and the after dinner circuit beckon when your time in Westminster is done.
With all this, anyone who becomes an MP will be able to afford that walled estate above the 50 metre line (above current sea level).
It doesn’t help that someone from a fossil fuel company will be round on their first morning in Westminster with an offer of “help with office expenses” and some very helpful leaflets about how much the company cares about the environment and why “energy security” requires that more extraction licences are granted.
Even the process of selecting someone to stand teaches them that they are special and better than everyone else – I won’t forget a Liberal candidate coming round City College in Norwich; he had his own entourage and that aura that rock-stars have that comes from knowing they are the most important person in the room before he was even elected!
I don’t think it is a coincidence that several Conservative MPs have proposed that private security firms should be allowed to carry fire-arms: they want to be allowed to use lethal force against the mobs that will gather outside their walled estates when it all goes to hell.
And where were most of our MPs educated? yes, that’s right; private schools and Oxbridge (the number with working-class backgrounds has dropped markedly in the last 30-40 years) – they have had the best education available in the UK (or so we are told), they are not ignorant or stupid people (again, so we are told). The information needed to understand what faces us is freely available.
So no, the problem isn’t the ignorance of politicians; they do understand what the climate scientists are telling them and they know that the problem is real, but the price of fixing it to them personally, now, is too high.
The price is that we need to dismantle the system that looks after the 1% at the cost of the 99%, but it is that system that gives them tremendous wealth and power as soon as they join our political system. It is the system which floods them with offers to continue in their high-flying life after their years in politics is over.
the problem is that they are confident about their future and they are so disconnected from the rest of us that they don’t really connect with the suffering that the unfolding environmental catastrophe will bring to ordinary people in the global north, never mind the suffering that is already happening in the global south.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that many MPs don’t start out with good intentions, and those who stay on the back benches sometimes even retain them, but the Whip system ensures that no-one with a moral compass ever get to become minister let alone prime minister.
In case you don’t know, the whips go round to MPs who might be foolish enough to vote with their conscience instead of their leader’s wishes and explain that if they have any wish of ever being a minister, they have to “vote the right way” – obviously people who put ambition above scruples get ahead and those who vote with their conscience get weeded out of the running for leadership roles in the party.
What can you do?
- Campaign to change the rules so the MPs must live in their constituency – making sure they have a genuine connection to the people they supposedly represent (then the flood that hurts you, hurts them)
- Campaign to abolish the whip system the so badly corrupts democracy
- Campaign to relate an MPs salary to the median UK salary e.g. 2 x median salary would be 56k – plenty for anyone to live on, not enough for them to believe they are better than us or attract people who are only doing it for money and power. And if they want more, they’d better improve our income hadn’t they?
- Make sure that MPs can’t claim expenses for things that you or I can’t – many claim for travel to and from Westminster and for the rent on a London house, but we couldn’t claim either. If they care about the country they can sleep in a barracks with Travelodge level accommodation when they are in London – I don’t mind paying for that.
- No other jobs allowed when you are in Westminster – if you are getting that much of our money you should be focussed entirely on our needs, not your own or those of a corporation
- Being an MP is a full-time job – you don’t get the summer off to supervise the peasants on your estate bringing the harvest in (yes, that really is why there is a summer recess!).
- Taking money for access or gaining financially from an undeclared interest should be a criminal offences with serious jail time (e.g. if you donate 100k to the Conservatives and get to have dinner with Rishi so you can explain why you need a few millions of public money to be dropped in your pocket or a 3bn tax bill to disappear, it should result in the person who brokered it spending 10 years in prison).
- Cut the house of lords down to no more than 300 people and make it like jury service – you randomly get a letter saying “sorry mate, your next 5 years is going to be in Westminster”. You would get training and the support of experts who understand the system and the law (they are called civil servants, and no, they are not all scum). No political appointments allowed at all. You would also need to be paid the same as an MP (i.e. 2 x median UK salary), and get 5 years worth of pension contributions along with being able to claim legitimate expenses (no duck-houses please!).
Now none of this works if you are powerless to influence who actually gets elected. Hmm, we need proportional representation don’t we?
But also you need to vote for the party that wants what you want, not for a party you would prefer to the other lot or “have a chance of getting in” The reason the party that wants what you want don’t get elected is because people vote tactically when they should vote with their hearts.
In the end, its up to you – get your voter ID, get down to the polling station and vote for what you believe and don’t try to game the system.
Ceefer Madness 