UK politics: traditions are great, but we need a little bit of change….

Looking at some of the pictures over the past couple of weeks since Boris’ ousting and it is quite clear why we always end up at the same juncture.

You see the pictures of a group of MPs gathered around their chosen candidate to replace Boris and the pictures are all the same: not an ounce of seriousness or focus on the immediate plight the country’s in. A plight they have all sat back to watch build-up as these are the same individuals who have been in government up to the moment. But we are now supposed to hang the entire mess on just Boris. The pictures showing an individual in the middle – as if any individual ever have enough to sustain a country – with the adulating, smiley faces gathered around them, usually clapping at the time the photos are taken, depicts exactly what is wrong with our society. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix. If we focus on a group, then everyone dodges responsibility. if the focus is on the aides – who are the ones who do all the work by the way – they get heady and we’re back right where we started!

But something needs to change.

The excessive focus on an individual is what leads to the mindless power grab that in turn leads to too much attention on an individual, when the rest of his or her team probably dropped the ball. Power must be decentralised. It is the same reason so many regions are asking for autonomy. If you hand all power to an individual, what you find is that he or she is beholden to some puppet masters behind the scenes anyway. Devolution to a point where it doesn’t matter so much who’s in 10 Downing St and whether or not that individual flaunts rules, is what we need to get to. Scotland doesn’t need to breakaway from the UK, just devolve powers to their leaders so they can remain within the UK but be able to make their own key decisions for themselves etc.

This idea of vesting so much power and faith in an individual is always a recipe for disaster, as nobody is perfect and more importantly, nobody can be perfect all the time!!