Government disconnect.

I've just finished reading an interesting book called ‘Politics’ by David Runciman which has introduced me to the thoughts and works of Thomas Hobbes whose most famous work, Leviathan, was written in 1651. This book is probably the greatest work of political philosophy in the English language, according to the author.

Amongst other things Hobbes believed in three things. First, politics had to prove its usefulness to us the people. Second, personal fulfilment required political protection but not political interference and third, politics has to be founded on an agreement between individuals and their representatives or put another way decision makers won’t carry the people with them if they don’t speak for them.

Remember this was written in 1651 but is as true today as we can clearly see over Brexit, and much more besides, as our elected representatives have clearly lost sight of the views and opinions of those they serve. This has slowly developed over time as, apart from General Elections, our MPs have little to fear from the electorate and have increasingly become more and more distant and disconnected form the people they serve and the rot is now so ingrained that things will only change with fundamental political reform as advocated by our agenda. The most important ingredient is of course that the 'People' are recognised as sovereign instead of Parliament giving them the ultimate POWER over their elected representatives given certain conditions and critera are met. 

I could wax lyrical about our preening  celebrity minded politicians who increasingly, in both parties, come from the same draw and those who don’t soon adopted the same high handed elitist attitude. However, suffice to say it is increasingly obvious that they are disconnected from the concerns, wishes and desires of us ordinary folk.