The world is in constant change. Priorities jockey for position, Governments rise and fall. Discoveries in technology and medicine suddenly open up all manner of new possibilities. The world is forever changing and the people who run our country have to demonstrate that they can facilitate such a change.
Despite themselves there never seems to be a political figure (or party) with enough vision to put into place a structure that is built to last. Year on year, campaign after campaign, manifesto after manifesto the political parties talk big and then fail miserably to deliver.
In 1997 the country had problems with (and in no particular order) poor performance in education, poor performance in the National Health Service, poor results in crime, prison overcrowding, drugs on the streets, no immigration control, higher and higher council taxes for less service and a Government failing to deliver on any of it. That was the position in 1997 when Labour took over from the Conservatives.
In 2007 nothing has improved. In fact now we also have higher taxes, a veritable plague of speed cameras, untold thousands of immigrants coming into this country when there wasn't enough housing to go round in the first place (hence sky rocketing house prices), not enough parking for cars (because the young drivers can't afford to move out of the family home anymore) and to cap it all, the Government gives itself a diamond encrusted pension package whilst final salary schemes (barely cubic zirconium by comparison) collapse in on themselves.
This is just home affairs I'm talking about. I find it astounding that so many registered voters resist the idea of Great Britain being governed by a European Parliament. Resistance from politicians I can understand because they already know that a European Parliament could cock up the running of our country just as good any of our home grown politicians.
What can we do about it?
In order to change the way our Government runs the country, we have to change the way in which our Government is held to account. We, the little people, must find ways to become more than just apathetic non voters at election time. We also need to have the power to influence manifesto policies.
A few years ago I sent an idea up to the BBC for a political show that aired political ideas pitched against the manifesto policies of political parties. When the viewer had heard the short presentations they would be invited to 'phone vote' for the policy of their choice. The show would be a good way to test the mood of the people whilst at the same time demonstrate which manifesto pledge had the greatest support. So if the BBC now come out with an idea even remotely like this one, you know where it was pinched from.
I realised a long time ago that the only way to influence how our country was run would be either to become a part of the problem - I mean become a politician - or find a way to galvanise the will of the people. The newspapers keep banging on about why the people should have a referendum on if we want to go further into Europe. Now, I am no technical genius when it comes to developing web sites but it only takes one bright spark to invent 'referendum.com' and charge a small membership fee (in return for a unique voting number) and then hold a referendum on anything you like. Why wait for the Government to do it? Imagine the power we would have if we decided that the price of petrol was too high and this one site could take a vote on what action we could take to force a change? Imagine if absolutely everyone in the country got the hump with a well known supermarket and voted to avoid it for a week? With a site like 'referendum.com' we could do that. Any smart web master out there is welcome to contact me and discuss it.
These were just a few ideas that I had where the little people could get involved and make a difference.But there were other ideas, radical maybe but practical, that I had and wanted to share with the right people. Of course it was unlikely that my ideas could possibly work. Here's an example...
Ban the display of cigarettes in sweet shops
The idea was pretty straight forward, and actually forms part of a bigger solution to erradicate the illegal selling of drugs on the streets of Great Britain. When I quit smoking in 2005 (see my book 'Stop Smoking: Diary of a Quitter') I bored everyone with the whole reformed smoker routine. Never the less it struck me that allowing people to smoke a poisonous substance legally and then banning other poisonous substances was rather silly; not that I advocate the decriminalisation of drugs. Let me be quite clear - I am very anti drugs, especially the ones that force gullible youngsters to consider acts of crime that they would otherwise never have contemplated.
What seemed perculiar to me was why, after acknowledging how harmful cigarettes were to humans, we continued to allow a brightly lit display of colourful boxes to remain in full view of our little children when they went into the local sweet shop to buy sweets. For years they would be drawn to cigarette boxes, having been told that they were too young to have them. Yeah right! Tell any child not to do something and the chances are they will do it at least once.
In 2006 the Goverment's Department of Health ran a questionnaire on what grusome pictures should be displayed on cigarette boxes. When I wrote in with my selection I informed them - as an ex smoker - that if watching both my parents die of lung cancer didn't stop me from smoking, what made them think that putting terrible pictures on a box of cigarettes would make the blindest bit of difference? If they really wanted to do something positive they should take cigarettes out of sweet shops. In fact they should take them off display altogether. I further stated that if they wanted to go the whole hog they should sell cigarettes only from pharmacies. Smokers could still by their fags but children would not go to a chemist to buy their sweets.
I received an email in which the response was:
“Whilst banning the display of cigarettes is not something that we are actively pursuing at the moment, the Department is noting developments across the world. Iceland, for example, have banned the display of tobacco and Ireland are looking into it - although I understand the tobacco industry are mounting a legal challenge to the proposals.”
What this showed was that, clearly, I was not the first person to think of it but I had come to the same conclusion independently. Certainly I had never seen my suggestion discussed in Great Britain.
Almost a year later (June 2007) I saw an article quoting from an interview with the Government's Chief Medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, advocating the idea of removing cigarettes from display and placing them under the counter. Why is it then that nothing has changed? The savings for the country on the future health of our children is potentially enormous. While the government wrangles over the correct classification for cannibis, another generation is exposed to the most popular way to take it, i.e. by smoking. Taking away the subliminal attraction to learn how to smoke anything must surely be the first step to eliminating drugs that can be smoked.
Finding an answer
I am fully confidant that no politician or political party will ever solve the problems that we all want to see solved. It seems likely that many young and highly principled people believe that a political career will give them the opportunity to shake up the system and really make things happen. Those same young and highly principled people then hit the bureaucratic brick wall of party politics and suddenly realise that even the best ideas in the world get discarded if it doesn't suit party political policy. I suspect that this is the true nature of the UK's disappointing election turnouts.
When I wrote 'The Philosophy of the Tarot for the 21st Century' ( synergebooks ) I realised that, if I were to follow the Tarot card method., I had to concede the notion that I was never going to make a difference as a politician. Trying to change politics from the inside would involve me having to become a politician - and that was a problem for me. The thing about becoming a politician is that rather than me acting as a part of 'the people' I would have to give myself over to acting on behalf of the people. At least I would have to try to represent my constituents as opposed to representing a political party. My ethics and belief system was too strong to allow myself to become engulfed by the very system that failed to deliver any lasting solution. So my decision was to put my energies into finding ways to change the system and thus empower the little people.
The first answer we would need to find is how do we get political parties to listen to what we want rather than what they choose to think we want. And the first thing we simply have to change is the voting system. This is the very first system I have ever seen that ensures over 99% of voters are represented at least by the party of their choice if not the individual candidate. The 'Electoral Reform Society' agreed to see my presentation. Over a year has passed and I still await their comment.
