ON MY MIND
IT is now the time of ‘heightened sensitivity’ (formerly insensitively called ‘purdah’) when certain restrictions are placed on preelection communication. As the largely unrepresentative local elections are presented to us as a democratic way to elect local councillors, some have described (also insensitively) the current period as ‘purgatory’. This is a time of suffering which some Christians believe to be the final purification of the elect, or in this case the interminable irritation of the electorate.
The dreaded knock at the door by a jolly hopeful or the gentle flutter of the predictable leaflet through the letterbox heralds the local elections. You might have thought by now that county, town and community councils would have realised that most people don’t vote in the hope that they will all go away, that the system is unfit for purpose and democratic fatigue syndrome is endemic in the community. Yet there are only tentative proposals and advice from Welsh Government to move the right to vote on to the right to be heard and properly represented in an equitable way.
At the drop of a ballot box some improvements can be made. For example, no uncontested seat should be valid without an election (nobody voted for these people) and the single transferable vote should replace the outdated ‘first past the post’ system. It might work in Ffos Las but it’s about as contemporary and useful today as a ‘rotten borough’. The biggest challenge though is to sweep up the sawdust when out of the woodwork wriggle, or get pulled, the same old tiresome political faces of the major political parties which are often desperate to put together a team let alone score a goal.
I have the greatest respect for those who offer themselves as councillors and admire their commitment and energy. However, membership of a political party at county, town or community council is about as relevant as a sailor on a P&O Ferry. We need a system where local decision making is done by elected people representing a range of community and residents’ groups and chosen only for their values, experience and skills.