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Power to
the people?
ARE we entering a new terrain in British politics? Is it
possible that the remarks on the need for ‘localism’
by communities minister David Miliband and the report ‘Power
to the People’ by Dame Helena Kennedy’s committee
on democracy, amount to a sea-change by the political class
that will bring politics back to the people?
It is difficult to doubt the good intentions of the Kennedy
committee – capping donations to parties, state-funding
local parties, limiting the cross-ownership of the media and
giving more power to local authorities.
But will this ever happen? The British establishment is a dab
hand at setting up commissions and committees and then burying
their findings.
Dame Helena and her colleagues only discovered the obvious –
that people are alienated and have no interest in politics because
they feel powerless. And who can blame them?
As our culture, life-styles and politics become – certainly
under New Labour – more and more Americanised, with the
rise of presidential-style politics, cities run by mayors and
local authorities run by small executive cabals, is it possible
that those with power will gracefully step aside?
For every decision taken by elected politicians at local or
national level you will find other decisions affecting our lives
taken by unelected quangos.
This week an unelected Standards Board suspended the elected
Mayor of London.
In the New Journal this week we report the protests by residents
in West Hampstead (see page 10) against the removal of trees
shielding them from a railway line. And what happens? A body
unaccountable to the electorate, Network Rail, has told them
to get lost.
Next week, a committee will take a decision on the future of
King’s Cross (see pages 8 and 9) even though it has had
only a few days to study what is commonly accepted as one of
the most detailed and complex reports ever published by a local
authority.
Again, objections by residents that the report is being undemocratically
rushed through, are being simply brushed aside.
Power to the people? Not many signs of it this week.
Then comes a remark by David Miliband (see page 6) who suggests
the government may now reverse gears and spend nearly £300
million on council homes in Camden.
Is there a glimmer of light here? Does Miliband really mean
it when he exalts the notion of ‘localism’? When he
expounded the idea a fortnight ago, cynics dismissed it as spin.
But is it? |
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