…British Democracy, at least as this latest round of Tory party shenanigans and back-biting continues.
Don’t mistake me here, I’m no fan of Iain Duncan Smith, but watching this debacle of a party attempting to anonymously stab this man in the back is ridiculous, because the main looser here is the British Democracy, as our current Government are not held to account (Which, I suspect, means I do agree with Duncan Smith on one thing). Government policies will go unchallenged, and unreported by the press. Call me a cynic, but unchallenged policies can ultimately lead to bad policies.
That the Tories are supposedly the “official opposition” right now also demonstrates some of the problems with our oppositional system with it’s strange “representative” system (With just 43% of the popular vote, Labour have a huge majority in parliament).
So, in all of this the biggest looser is the democracy, as people (rightly, in this case, I fear: It’s an unedifying display) turn away in disgust as these politicians stab and snipe at each other. The Tory party itself is, I suspect, will continue to collapse: It’s been collapsing since 1995 when Major pulled the original “back me or sack me” stunt. As Roger Darlington points out, deciding on a leader means balancing two conflicting needs: Voter appeal and Grass roots popularity.
For the sake of our parliamentary system, I hope they get on with it and start doing what an opposition is supposed to do, rather than stabbing each other in the back. Because right now they’re neither an alternative government, an opposition, or - let’s be honest - capable of organising a piss up in a brewery, let alone running the country.
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