March 20, 2014
Tony Benn
The real peril facing our democracies is apathy. Men such as Benn and Crow are lamented not so much because they were idealists per se, as because they gave color to the pervasive predictability of modern politics. In Britain the largest steps taken so far to combat voters” indifference have been largely misdirected. So, for example, efforts to reform politicians” finances have tended to address the symptoms rather than the cause: Even Bob Crow campaigned for larger salaries for MPs, stating that £74,000 is no longer a high salary when compared to those of industry leaders. Another, postal voting, is imperiling the whole system and has completely failed to raise numbers: after all, if you can”t be bothered to get to a polling station, you probably aren”t going to be bothered to get to a postbox either”it is a mental, not a physical issue. The system, as is to be expected of any that renders the secret ballot optional, is wide open to abuse, with a judge and election commissioner last week describing electoral fraud as on “an industrial scale.”
There are many reasons for voter apathy, but one of them in Britain is pretty clear: the disconnect between locals and Westminster that renders issues and options uninspiring. All too often the candidates presented by political parties are chosen by local members from a list of media- and party-friendly choices presented by central offices with little or no regard for local preferences and issues.
When that trend is bucked, the results can be remarkable. For example, at the 2001 general election, in the constituency of Wyre Forest, a local candidate stood as an independent on a single issue concerned with a local hospital. He overturned a 6,946-seat majority, winning by 17,630 votes and with a turnout over eight basis points higher than the national average. That’s not to say that the answer lies only in fielding local candidates on local issues, but it shows what can happen when people are faced with options to which they can personally relate.
Both Bob Crow and Tony Benn struck similar chords, negative as well as positive, with voters. They raised issues that people cared about, often very vehemently, and they did so in the face of their political superiors” fury. Neither of them would have stood the remotest chance of success before their local constituency selection committees nowadays, not that Crowe ever tried. They would never have appealed to a system that values conformity over individuality, national over local, safety over risk, and obedience over independence. It was a system that didn”t appeal to them, and in that, if often in little else, they were wholly in accord with the majority.
