Welcome to the new world. That, at least, is what Gordon Brown and his advisers would have us believe. As politicians take up cudgels for the autumn season, the Prime Minister pledged yesterday: "It cannot, and should not, be business as usual." Mr Brown is right to say all parties have an interest in changing the way politics is run. The British public has disengaged progressively from politics to the point where barely 60% bother to vote in a General Election and only one person in 88 belongs to a political party. Some see this as the inevitable consequence of a prosperous society more concerned with pleasure than bread-and-butter issues. Others blame the shallowness of politics and absence of ideology. Whether this keynote speech compounds or challenges that view remains to be seen.
Under the heading of "the new politics", Mr Brown includes citizens' juries, standing commissions on carers, security in public places and children with communication problems, plus Speaker's conferences on various aspects of the electoral process.
There is much talk of "triangulation". Views on whether the term applies to Mr Brown's "new politics" depend on one's understanding of it. Originally used to refer to Bill Clinton's retreat to the political middle-ground in 1994, it is often compared with Tony Blair's "third way" and its accommodation of the market-place and not-for-profit sector. Despite his deep involvement in the New Labour project, Mr Brown is still perceived by many as more partisan, a thinly-disguised old-style socialist. In this context, yesterday's speech can be seen as an attempt to throw off the constraining corsetry of sterile party politics. For many on the disgruntled left, triangulation is just a fancy word for betrayal. To them "new politics", including three commissions chaired by opposition MPs, is a naked attempt to court disaffected opposition politicians.
Mr Brown may be right about re-engaging the electorate. The danger is that if initiatives such as this one are simply perceived as smart political manoeuvring, voters will feel even more cynical about politics. After the 7/7 bombings, many of the Muslims invited to join government discussion groups ended up disillusioned because their views were largely ignored. Citizens' juries and standing commissions risk the same fate. And while The Herald welcomes the plan to consider electoral reforms such as weekend voting, it is time the government recognised the corrosive effects of both flawed electronic voting systems in Scotland and a first-past-the-post voting system for Westminster that effectively disenfranchises millions of voters in safe seats.
It would be wrong to dismiss out of hand the vision of a vibrant, active, engaged electorate helping the government carve out visionary policies for their communities and their country. Citizens' juries, for example, could be a valuable innovation but only if they don't end up as glorified focus groups drawing on "the usual suspects". Many politicians talk about breaking the old mould of left-right politics. It is easier said than done. Remember David Cameron announcing the end of "Punch and Judy politics"? We will not hold our breath.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article