Don't campaign to clean up politics.- Don't campaign to tighten the rules on MPs' expenses.
- Don't campaign to increase openness and enhance accountability.
- Don't campaign to reform the electoral system.
Er... what?
No, really. Do you think the electorate is stupid? Voters know that parties' promises on reforming politics are typically well-intentioned but over-sold. Devious people will always find ways to cheat the system. And politicians are seen as devious people.
But we need to prevent the abuses of MPs' expenses that were discovered this year!
The only reason these abuses were discovered this year was through the leaking of the information. Illegal, of course, but no jury in the land would have convicted. It'll be great if new systems stop these abuses, but it will always be the threat of discovery that will act as the real deterrent to future abuses.
What about recall systems for MPs found guilty of breaking the rules?
Again, great idea, but the details are tricky to get right. In the meantime, an MP who refuses to go hemorrhages support from their party, increasing pressure on them to go. Obviously it's not ideal, but if you're already of the view that "they're all as bad as each other", replacing one crook with another isn't going to help.
But electoral reform... surely it's ridiculous that one party can get control over Parliament even if only a quarter of people vote for them? It's mad that in safe constituencies you could pin a blue or red rosette on a donkey and it'd still win!
Meh.
What kind of a reasoned response is that?!
An honest one. If the voters were to consider the problems with the current system hard enough, a sizeable proportion might well demand just the kind of changes that many politically interested folks support. But they don't consider these problems, because they see them as secondary to their real concerns.
Which are...?
Maybe in another blog post.
But surely the lack of engagement by the electorate in these issues stems from a failure of communication? A failure to get across to the electorate the importance of fixing a broken political system.
Meh.
Is that your catch-all answer then?
OK. You tried to communicate. And maybe you failed. Or maybe these issues really are of secondary importance to most people.
So you're saying do nothing to repair politics?
No, by all means put forward sensible proposals. In fact you need to have some proposals to counter the argument that you don't care about the abuses and that you're just the same as all the other parties. Just don't expect the voters to care too much about your actual proposals or to fall over themselves to put a tick in your box on that basis. Besides which, all the other parties will also have proposals to drone on about.
Meh
Nice try. But "meh" doesn't work as a response in that context.
Meh
OK, well done. So there it does.
Meh
Now you're over-doing it.
Sorry
