In response to an FT article by Janan Ganesh on 12th January 2015, entitled 'Even blander UK politics makes for a cheerful prospect'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bdbe79e4-9a54-11e4-8426-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3Ogk0kllX
There are plenty of things that need to be done, and areas that need reform. However there is not the courage nor the will amongst politicians to talk about them honestly. Why? Because they fear that telling uncomfortable truths to the electorate would encourage them to vote for the people who continue to buy their votes with electoral bribes and reassuring lies. That's why, for example:
- we have not reformed a fractional reserve banking and financial system that has to continuously generate debt in order not to collapse in on itself, which has concentrated systemic risk since the last crisis and which is sitting on a growing, not shrinking, mountain of derivatives
- we have not reformed a pension system that is heading towards a demographic cliff
British politicians are not alone in this. The Japanese government is in total denial, Washington is bought and paid for by Wall Street, which behaves as if dollar hegemony and reserve currency status will last forever, and the EU specialises in making rules for itself that clearly will never work because few will even attempt to follow them.
Progress happens despite governments not because of them. For example - It it had been left to early 20th century governments to reform our democracy, women would never have got the vote. It was the people being arrested for wanting that change who achieved that change, not the moth balled suits in Westminster.
Many people are apathetic about politics and politicians because, at an intuitive level we know that the system is a sham, and the electoral process that is kicking off now is a charade. Underneath this apparent apathy is anger, underneath that anger is a desire to hear the truth and do something about the real challenges we face.
I believe that a political leader with the courage to point out the denial inherent in our political system, with the courage to fess up about and confront these problems, might discover that people don't need to bribed and lied to in order to put a cross on a piece of paper.