MORNING SERIAL
SOCIAL media has allowed politicians to speak directly to voters, and at first glance that can be considered a good thing. Politicians are always being accused of being disconnected so what could be better than the ability to have conversations with voters? This would be true if it was in fact a conversation, but it isn’t. There is nothing two-way about it. It is just the Government line being pumped into the eyes and brain of their electorate, with the respective supporters and opponents calling each other “cockwombles” in the comment threads. There is a reason that when he announced his “stay alert” message on May 10, Boris Johnson pre-recorded it with no journalistic scrutiny. It is the same reason the Government always puts questions from the public ahead of the journalists at the daily briefing. It is the same reason that Donald Trump will take any opportunity to undermine the credibility of the journalists who scrutinise him. It is because journalists are essential in holding power to account, and governments that run on a populist ticket hate being held to account. This is why trained and credible journalists are so vital to a functioning democracy, and why attempts to limit them should be seen as an attack on our society itself. On reflection, you can’t really be surprised by the state of the UK political system. Angry – yes. Disappointed – yes. Disillusioned – yes. Surprised? No. The UK’s electoral system has done more than almost anything to ingrain the woeful shortcoming of governance today. First, is the adversarial political culture, a system designed for two parties but which contains over half a dozen. The very set-up of the House of Commons is adversarial. Why the hell, in the 21st century, are our elected representatives “two sword lengths apart”? No wonder we have a culture where it is better for politicians to have been seen to lie and mislead than be wrong. Yet the real cancer in the heart of politics in the UK is the voting system. The idea that the first-past-the-post method can still be defended is bananas.
Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013