The Observer ran a leader article on “UKIP has risen on the back of broken politics”. Sunday 12th October 2014. My response was published the following Sunday.
“Sara Wollaston was elected MP for Totnes in May 2010 after winning the UK’s first American-style primary election open to every voter in Totnes for the conservative candidacy. Four years later there has been no movement on getting “real people” elected ( “UKIP has risen on the back of broken politics” leading article last week). Labour is entrenched in its old ways. A growing number of politicians on all sides seem to have slid into politics via public relations, short lived media jobs and think- tanks. Few of them appear to have got their hands dirty working in manufacturing, agriculture, services or not for profit work. This lack of “real” world experience and an informed view of how people live creates a lack of empathy with the electorate. Reinforce this with the culture of Parliament that engenders delusions of adequacy and power that inevitably corrupts sensibility. Then add to this lethal cocktail the continuing downward trajectory of the turnout of the electorate and you will end up with politicians pinning the blame on someone else, usually the other party and when that fails,the electorate. The malaise and its treatment rests entirely with the politicians to provide a dynamic for positive political reform where it counts; at the ballot box”.