Last week my wife and I were having coffee with an old friend, whom we meet two or three times a year. In the course of a wide-ranging conversation — we enjoy many common interests — we found ourselves turning to politics. The discussion was not essentially about specific political issues, but rather, our feelings about politicians.
It quickly became clear that on this topic we were at one, and that our views were extremely gloomy. We shared very negative feelings about our politicians, of all parties, and they were views which did not depend on the political stance of the individual politicians. To put it bluntly, we rapidly agreed that, with few exceptions, we had a low view of them. It is not at all surprising, we agreed, that many people cannot be bothered to exercise their right to vote in elections, and that turnout is depressingly low.
All three of us agreed that if you have the right to vote in an election, you should most emphatically exercise that right. That is a view which I have always held, and it is based on two important facts. The first is that if you do not use your vote, you have no moral right to criticise what the politicians who are elected do — or fail to do. Even more important is the fact that many people around the world have not enjoyed democratic rights, and if they achieve them, their value becomes clearly apparent; consider, for example, the reaction of black South Africans when, at long last, they got the vote. There is, in short, absolutely no excuse for failing to exercise one’s vote. It is, however, very clear that many people do not share our view that this is important — or indeed, see it, as we do, as a democratic duty. At least part of the reason must surely be attributable to the fact that the three of us are not the only ones who have a generally negative view of politicians.
Why, we asked each other, is this the case? There will, of course, be a number of different answers, but the more we pondered the matter, the more we felt that one important reason is the depressingly limited experience which many of our leading politicians have.
Many of them come from similar educational backgrounds, and have not benefited from the experience of studying with people of widely different social upbringing. Even more significant is the fact that many of today’s politicians have not worked in any field other than politics. They have filled temporary roles as political assistants, providing services to more senior politicians, and have moved on from that to take the more senior roles themselves. To be cynical, everything combines to give them a narrow view of the world which they are now trying to organise and govern. It was not always so. It is, I fully recognise, unwise to look back on the past as an ideal state; it was far from that, and many things were wrong with it. Nevertheless, in the era when we first had the vote, it was far more common for the politicians who were seeking to represent us, and asking for our electoral support, to have had experience outside the narrow political world. Many of them, for example, had served in the armed forces during the war. Furthermore, the practice of giving young would-be politicians narrowly based “political” jobs had not become anything like as widespread as it is now.
In theory, it would be easy to reform the present situation, by laying down firm rules about the experience that politicians must acquire before representing their fellow citizens in Parliament. Putting that theory into practice, however, would not be at all easy. It would clearly be resisted by the politicians who are currently in power, and who have come to that position through the “old” system. However strong the case is for a fundamental change of this kind, it will not be in the interests of those capable of making the change to take the necessary steps.
I know what ought to be done. I think the arguments for doing it are irrefutable. I just simply cannot think of a way of ensuring that the change happens. Sadly, I think we are stuck with a most unsatisfactory situation. I have no doubt about the need for this radical change. Unfortunately, I have equally no doubt that there is no obvious way to bring it about.
Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, the U.K. E-mail: bill.kirkman@gmail.com
