Hey, let’s try this democracy thing for a change

The Digital Economy Bill has been shoved through parliament as part of the “wash-up” as MPs prepare for the impending general election. It is a piece of legislation that serves the interests of large media companies to the detriment of the rights of individuals and the development of the wider economy.

Why do such things happen? Is it because MPs are stupid? I don’t think so, at least not all of them. Is it because Ministers are venal and corrupt? I have less to go on here but let us use Occam’s Razor and see if we can propose an explanation which assumes cock-up rather than conspiracy.
It’s simple really. Large media companies are more important and powerful than you or I. They are more powerful than most businesses. Not only do they employ people and generate tax revenue for the state but they control the means by which you and I find out about the world. It is not as simple as supposing that when they say “jump” the government asks “how high?” but you can’t expect the government to pay as much attention to the rest of us.
Unless we do something to redress the power imbalance.
We could seize control of the means of production, we could try to organise mass protests, we could (as 38 degrees is advocating) lobby for lobbying reform. I’m not against any of that but I do think there is a simple reform that could make a huge difference.
Parliament should pass a law saying that political parties can only be funded from donations made by individuals and no individual may give more than, let’s say, 500 quid in donations in any year. No donations from companies, no massive donations made by rich individuals. Unions would not make donations (though their members could of course).
This would, at a stroke, force political parties to become mass movements again. In order to attract large groups of people to them they would have to listen to them, and talk to them. Individuals would start to become more important.
Some will say that this will force political parties into adopting ever more populist manifestos or becoming even more centrist than they already are. Maybe I’m a rosy-eyed optimist but I suspect it would actually engage more people in a decent political debate and anyway would it be worse to have a Government driven by pandering to Daily Mail readers than pandering to the last vestiges of an outmoded and dying industry?

Comments

Comments are closed.