Front up,Theresa, interaction is what this electorate needs
If Theresa May and the Conservatives continue to hide behind their huge poll lead, they will trash British democracy, alienate more people from politics and create future trouble for themselves, argues Chief Reporter Martin Shipton
APROPERLY functioning democracy only exists when its leaders open themselves up to scrutiny.
Say what you like about Carwyn Jones, but he hasn’t erected a wall between himself and the electorate.
The idea of attending a town hall meeting on a rainy weekday evening to question the First Minister about a parochial concern may appeal only to a minority.
But Jones has subjected himself to such interrogations on multiple occasions, regarding it as part of his constitutional duty as head of the Welsh Government to do so.
This is all the more important during an election campaign – and again, Jones was happy to participate in a succession of debates with other party leaders, during which he was questioned by journalists and by members of the public.
At the General Election he’s actively participating again, even though he’s not a candidate.
Compare this with how Theresa May and other leading Conservatives are behaving.
A couple of weeks ago the Prime Minister came to a community centre in Bridgend.
In years gone by such a visit would have entailed meeting a mother and toddler group for a fairly innocuous chat that may also have included reading the children a story. At least it would have involved her meeting real local people.
Instead, genuine members of the local community were nowhere to be seen.
The community centre was taken over by the Conservative machine, with party activists from across south Wales checked in on a named list. Of course there’s a need for security, but to deliberately exclude local people from the event was a conscious decision by the party to suppress potential dissent.
Some of the Tory activists who made up the audience held up placards which displayed Mrs May’s newly minted catchphrase: “Strong and stable leadership in the national interest.” They all looked rather uncomfortable: it was highly unlikely that they’d ever held placards before, or indeed attended a real demonstration against a real or perceived injustice.
After listening to Mrs May delivering her relatively short “strong and stable leadership versus the coalition of chaos” speech, journalists were invited to ask questions. But this was no ordinary press conference, where reporters were allowed to ask what they wanted. A small number of reporters were contacted in advance to be told that they could ask the PM a single question. I was the only Welsh journalist to be afforded such a privilege, and I was asked by a Conservative press officer what question I wanted to put. I said I wanted to ask her about the UK’s access to the European Single Market post-Brexit. I was told that would be fine, and later I was told where to stand in the audience so the Prime Minister would spot me.
What I didn’t tell the press officer was that I intended to ask Mrs May about a secret tape recording of remarks she made to employees of Goldman Sachs investment bank before the EU referendum in which she expressed concerns that foreignowned companies were likely to leave the UK in the event of Brexit. I duly asked the question and received what I considered to be a rather unconvincing reply.
I was covering politics during the New Labour years, when the abrasive manners of Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell could be tiresome. But reporters weren’t cherrypicked or prevented from asking questions in the same way as is happening now under Theresa May. To be fair, David Cameron was also relaxed about being exposed to tough questioning.
It’s perfectly clear that the Conservatives intend to ride to victory on a simplistic combination of May’s “strong and stable leadership” and the demonisation of Corbyn.
Yesterday Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – who earlier dubbed Corbyn a “mutton-headed old mugwump” – made a public appearance at Newport Market. To judge from our account of his visit, the discussion of policies didn’t figure on the agenda.
He painted his name in concrete, told a comic seller his favourite character in the genre was The Incredible Hulk and exchanged quips with the journalist Michael Crick about a cupcake that might have cannabis in it.
This is the infantilisation of politics, the trivialisation of a part of life that’s actually very important. It’s what happens when celebrities get elected for no other reason than their celebrity. In the European Union, which we’re about to leave, Boris Johnson is perceived as a buffoon. But for many in Britain he’s seen as an icon because he treats the business of politics as a joke.
All of this is profoundly depressing because it represents the trashing of our democracy. If politicians can avoid being held to account by constantly repeating a mantra that has already become a cliché, and by adopting the persona of a character from a PG Wodehouse comic novel, we’re in a bad place.
It would be good to think that when the party manifestos are published, they’ll receive proper and fair scrutiny. Here, we will do our best to do that.
The worry is that if the election campaign carries on as it is, and the party of government is elected with a big majority despite taking the electorate for granted, people who are already disillusioned with the political process will become more so, and more of those who weren’t disillusioned before will become so.
If there are negative consequences from Brexit in particular, there will be a legacy of anger.
Instead of avoiding important questions and refusing to take part in TV debates with other political leaders, Theresa May should take her responsibilities as a democratic leader seriously.