Rebuilding Trust in Politics

I keep watching the news around politics, and it makes rather heart sick.

As a previous Labour voter, evidence would be needed to overcome my issues with Labour of: credibility, competence and trust. 

I simply can't find credible policy assertions made when senior Labour MPs seem to be less interested in democratic process and more in an agenda that doesn't refer to bulk of the population, and has not been transparent.

So many decisions seemed un-thought-through, with some looking like magical thinking. Particular highlights for me have been:

• We'll allow Marsden Point refinery to be closed, without any comment on the risk management issues the loss of a strategic asset poses.
• We'll promote the uptake of EVs, while doing nothing constructive about the charging network that is abysmal by developed world standards.
• We'll spend heavily on identity politics and regulatory detail, while the vital but prosaic things like our basic infrastructure and educational standards rot on the vine.
• We'll subsidise a progressive legacy media industry that has obviously disengaged from the huge number of subscribers it's losing - but is uniquely placed to make noise about it. Then there is hot denial and bewilderment at why public trust in the media is plummeting in a media perceived as politically over-friendly.
• We'll promise 100,000 houses, which was patently impossible, and then do nothing useful about the tax structures, regulatory burden, land planning, urban design or anything else that make it possible to buy a family home in this country for some kind of reasonable price, and is a gigantic sea-anchor on our development as investment capital get hoovered up by houses.
• Doing nothing useful about the oligopolies in building, food supply and other core areas of our lives.
• No visible notions of value for money. The public service grew at about three times the rate of labour force participation in the six years 2017-2023 and the cuts are aimed at returning the public service to about the size it was in 2019. Projects routinely, often hugely, missed targets of time, budget and performance - and there's no accountability.
• A slavish devotion to process that is so baked-in that it's no longer questioned, even if it means paralysis of grossly overdue development: there's always time for another enquiry and report that tells us nothing new - but allows a decision to be avoided...

But, of course, who is any better? All the parties are special in their own special way, and my major fear is that the lack of ability across the board is setting up for a demagogue who promises to "drain the swamp" of professional politics.

 

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