Is British Politics Broken?

Last Monday, I met the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, in his official residence at Westminster. This was because, I along with around 15 other teenagers had been shortlisted to win the Political Studies Association's 500 word blog competition on the above question. In the end, I finished second to my friend and 'rival', meaning that we defeated around 400 other students from both state and private schools. Our Politics teacher was overjoyed. I entered the competition thinking that if I lost I would have a new article to post, and if things went well I could meet a few editors at the Financial Times and go to Westminster. Luckily, I seem to have the best of both worlds.  So here below, is my 500 word piece submitted many months ago in the aftermath of the European Parliamentary elections. And some photos, many photos!

Is British Politics broken?

The EU parliamentary elections saw a newly-formed populist big tent claim a sweeping victory over other national parties, leaving the governing party in 5^th place and with both major parties reeling from their ‘constructively ambiguous’ policies. This was an election where the conventional power orders were ripped up and polarisation appeared rife. But this doesn’t mean that British Politics is broken. In fact, democracy in the UK is arguably more alive now than it ever has been before, and whilst views and opinions are now more radical and less pragmatic, this can be largely attributed to the broken framework within which British Politics operates.

The ‘winner-takes-all’ dynamic of Westminster politics means that smaller parties often fail to achieve parliamentary representation, as most governments are single party majority rule. However, unconstrained by parliamentary duties of executive scrutiny and constituency work, smaller parties can garner a lot of media attention despite having no representation in legislatures through their policies and leaders. UKIP’s efforts in 2015 best typify this, going into the election with only 2 MPs. Such was David Cameron’s fear of losing votes to this single-issue party led by a charismatic outsider that he pledged a referendum as far back as 2013 to silence his Eurosceptics. History is continuing to mock such an error.  Anyway, British politics has seen turnout increasing at every general election since 2005 and this is partially due to the transparency and choice voters face on the ballot paper. The Westminster system was designed for choice, just not too much of it.

In the early days of our United Kingdom, parliament consisted of a government and an opposition, and factions often operated out of a larger broadchurch of a party – ominously much like the ERG or the Future Britain Group do so now. Over centuries, Whigs and Tories, Conservatives and Liberals, and most recently Conservatives and Labour have dominated the electoral system. The only notable exceptions were regionalist political parties such as the SNP or the Irish Parliamentary. In both of these cases, the parties are limited by their own ideologies and can’t overhaul the gladiatorial two party system which has lingered in Britain for longer than the current Palace of Westminster itself.

Brexit has completely divided both major political parties and given rise to internal party divides great enough to tear them apart and leave Parliament deadlocked. The 11 MPs who broke away to start a new entity have bombed, unable to create a unique set of policies stretching beyond their very reason for existence. They are acting as little more than an insider pressure group. Change UK have campaigned on the basis that ‘Politics is broken’ and that they are the party to ‘fix it’. All that Change UK appear to have done is add splinters to the break.

Let’s look elsewhere for perspective. In Hungary, the political system currently allows. for a functioning government. However, I would argue that Hungarian politics is broken, or at least damaged. Since constitutional reforms in 2011, Parliamentary elections now operate on a basis closer to First Past the Post with an increased electoral threshold and a choice between Right wing Conservatism and the far-right. The left has fractured and no new party can easily break into parliament without backing from a government supporting media.

Advocating an ‘illiberal’ state, Prime Minister Orban’s reforms demonstrate to me that for all of the flaws in our political system, to have a wide choice of candidates and policy debates indicates that British politics is still in a comparably healthy state. Imperfect and flawed, yes, but not broken.

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Other winning articles can be read here: https://www.ft.com/content/dd020f7a-9750-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36