(Jon Bright is the Managing Editor of OurKingdom- OurKingdom is a part of openDemocracy’s new site. Its special focus is on the destiny of Britain. The website discusses Britain’s nations, institutions, constitution, administration, liberties, justice, peoples and media and their principles, identity and character. In a word our democracy in its broadest meaning, its history and future, from culture, participation and issues of centralisation and authority to equality, rights, responsibilities and who rules.)
What’s the point of power?
OurKingdom has a pretty simple mission – to make the constitution of the UK matter to people. Simple to say, that is, but hard to achieve: because I can say without much exaggeration that most people couldn’t care less about it at the moment. It’s a turnoff. In a recent poll, only 2% of Britons felt that the government should spend time reforming the constitution – the same amount that felt the government should do nothing at all. In fact, if you’ve even read up to hear, I’d be secretly pleased.
So why should people be interested? Well, for two reasons.
The first is that the constitution is starting to get interested in you, as it were. Most people don’t think too much about the engine while they are driving their cars – but when smoke starts to come out of the bonnet, they have to start paying attention.
Smoke has been quietly seeping out of the UK ever since Labour’s half-complete devolution settlement (though the word ‘settlement’ misleadingly implies that something was, well, settled). Since Alex Salmond took over in Holyrood, and as Plaid grow in power, it has started to come out in huge clouds. Creating devolved assemblies in Scotland and Wales (and finally getting Stormont started as well) has thrown a spanner into the UK machine, and no-one yet is quite sure of how it will be fixed – but we can’t keep driving along like this.
There’s also a second, more important, and more fundamental reason. The constitution is about the power in our society – who wields it, where it is wielded. And I think this is something that a great deal of people should be interested in.
To anyone who says people aren’t interested in politics I say – look at the Iraq war. This was a political issue, and I challenge you to find anyone who doesn’t have an opinion on it. A lot of people have very strong ones. But most of the energy that welled up in protest was sent, unfortunately, in the wrong direction. Everyone blamed Blair. Which is understandable. But would it have been different with a different prime minister? How did we even arrive at a situation where evidence for a war which most people were against could be manufactured, and planning for the aftermath could be so woefully thin, and yet no-one has been held personally culpable?
I don’t think people aren’t interested in politics. I think they aren’t interested in the type of politics they are allowed to do in this country. Not interested in voting in elections where only a few thousand swing voters have any real impact. Not interested in electing MPs to a parliament which lacks any real powers. Not interested in choosing between parties of apparently ideological interests. And not interested in a culture where apparently no-one is accountable.
Talking about the constitution is an opportunity to talk about all this, perhaps even change some of it. And devolution has created this opportunity. Already there is, for example, a vibrant new assembly in Wales – boasting near equal representation of women, a world first. There is proportional representation and power sharing, and a genuinely ‘local’ democracy. There will be no repeat of the Tryweryn debacle – and, just as importantly, if there ever was there would be people held accountable.
More gains could be made. In the next few years there will come a moment when Scotland votes on independence, when Wales votes for greater powers, when (perhaps) Fianna Fail merges with the SDLP and unionism starts to mean support for a united Ireland rather than a United Kingdom. There are no guarantees about how any of this will turn out – but with these moments there will be historic opportunities to reshape the nature of power in our country, and perhaps create a genuinely accountable, representative politics. That should be enough to get anyone interested.
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