What a treat to listen to John Major on Radio 4 this morning! He was born just down the road from me on Coldharbour Lane and talked about his Brixton days. He, like me , was a Lambeth Councillor – though not quite in the same era!
What I found reassuring was his welcoming attitude to
immigration. He was pointing to his own experience of hard working and
ambitious immigrants in Brixton. Such a change of dialogue from the nasty,
divisive speeches we get these days from many politicians who want to pitch to
base instincts and spread scare stories about scroungers and welfare cheats .
This discourse is corrosive to social cohesion and builds on people’s
prejudices, without so much as a shred of proper evidence, as opposed to pub
room chatter and anecdote. Or should we call this ‘policy making by the Daily
Mail’?
But political discourse is pretty dismal all round. A
classic example today was the announcement of unemployment figures. For the
government this is evidence of ‘the long term economic plan’ working , while
for the opposition it’s further fuel to the ‘cost of living crisis’ fire. These
trite clichés will be trotted out ad nauseam up to the election, and most of us
will find it is off-putting to proper democratic debate. Spin as opposed
to proper evidence-based (or even deeply principle-based) policy offers.
Where are the parties’ narratives on society and on the
role of civil society? How about social cohesion and community? I have yet to
hear an election-focused speech from either Cameron or Miliband on these
issues, let alone Clegg.
And whatever happened to the ‘Big Society’ – and what is
Labour's alternative?
We need better. It’s no wonder so many people find that
the political parties are not the place to find the answers to many of
society’s problems and challenges. It’s why so many people now find outlets for
their campaigning and advocacy work through charities, and why our memberships
have soared whilst the parties have atrophied. Plenty of civil society groups –
like the RSPB and National Trust, to name two of the biggest – have memberships
in the millions, many times the size of all the political parties put together.
You can however be sure that ACEVO will be battling away
on these issues, and challenging the parties to spell out their attitudes to
society and community and the role of civil society. Isn't it sad that instead
of spending proper time on all this we are having to battle away at the
iniquities of the Gagging Act and the vague guidance on it from the Electoral
Commission.
I suspect it will be down to charities to spell out the
truths about immigration and climate change in the lead-up to the election, and
to inform the debate on the environment and international development and build
community and radicalism in public service reform. And you can be sure ACEVO
won’t allow the Gagging Act to stop us pursuing our mission or on working with
our CEOs to ensure we all continue to speak truth to power, whatever
politicians might think about that. When the political parties fail to debate
key issues then civil society must.
While I blog, it’s worth mentioning there is a good BBC
Radio 4 programme on this topic tomorrow evening. Worth listening to – even the
bits of me that they will use!
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