Only somebody divorced from the realities of political life would not be aware that the corridors of Parliament are littered with the corpses of failed marriages, with Boris Johnson as the latest high profile casualty.
As one commentator said recently:-
"It is not just the obvious reasons; the long hours; the late-night votes; the drinking culture; the endless travel; the nights away from home; the birthdays,sport days and school plays missed in favour of that all important vote.
It's also the fact that, however down to earth you may be to start, once you get inside the Palace of Westminster, MPs are treated like a demigod by a culture that operates like a gentleman's club in Mayfair. Meanwhile, at home, they're still expected to take out the bins."
Implicit in our Second Demand 'Real Local Democracy' is that our national MPs would only concentrate on the issues of national importance such as Defence, Home and Foreign Affairs and of course the overall budget of the government, which would restore a better work/life balance. Meanwhile local politicians, in a much enhanced role, would take care of all local issues on a county basis with the powers to raise taxes a proportion of which would be sent up to Westminster to finance central government. This is of course a complete reversal of our current system where central government largely controls local government expenditure.
In their reduced role, concentrating on national issues, there is absolutely no reason why MPs should have to work every day of the week and indeed secondary employment would be encouraged. In such a way should the tally of failed marriages be reduced.
THA's demands set out a whole new way to govern this country in which the 'People' have real power, Local Politicans become important figures making real decisions and National Politicians only get to concentrate on the key issues of State.
As Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote in his novel The Leopard "everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same"
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