Imagine voting in a referendum and getting a guarantee?  I am not talking about the short term selfish trickery of Westminster and the Better Together campaign.  I mean a real guarantee.  Not like the guarantee on your TV that runs out in 3 years.  Not the false guarantee that our pensions are safer with Westminster.  I mean a guarantee that remains forever; a proper guarantee.

In 2016, or perhaps sooner, I expect Scotland’s referendum will deliver a Government elected by the people of Scotland that will represent the people of Scotland, but most of all will ANSWER to the people of Scotland.

We don’t know what form that Government will take.  First of all, will the election be the tired old ‘1st past the post’ system.  Will half the people of Scotland bother to turn out and will it matter.  Will we have a system like the 2010 UK election when the Conservatives ‘secured’ power with 17% of the people or 23% of the electorate.

Will we use the system deployed for the Scottish Government, the Additional Member System AMS [read about it].  AMS is designed to better reflect the wishes of the people.  Clearly a better system than ‘1st past the post’, but a failure none the less.

If I decided to launch a new party called the ‘Don’t Care and Cannae Be Bothered Party DC_CBB’ with agreement that you vote for DC_CBB by NOT VOTING.  Two things happen immediately:

1.  My party would win every election in Scotland as it would have won every election in the UK since, … well forever.

2.  I would have introduced a system that was totally democratic and already adopted by 22 countries in 2013 including 10 of the 30 OECD countries [check it out].

A vote for DC_CBB would be a decision that we don’t want ANY of these candidates or we are NOT INTERESTED in what ANY of these candidates are offering.

HOW RADICAL WOULD THAT BE – HANDS UP ALL WHO THINK THIS IS AN ACCURATE REFLECTION OF WHAT YOU ARE THINKING.

The bad news is I will not be launching the DC_CBB party … sorry!

The good news is Scotland has an opportunity after a YES vote to tear up the old electoral system, re-discover the initiative that gave us the AMS system and introduce a totally democratic electoral system where we elect people we believe in to delivery the things we want.

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE START THAT WOULD BE

Although not perfect, the AMS system has served Scotland well.  The Scottish Parliament is far more civilised than Westminster and half way through their 2nd term SNP remains the most popular party.  Perhaps that’s due in no small part to a better electoral system.  However, for a new Independent Scotland, we don’t want a better system, we want the BEST SYSTEM.

Chester Bowles, the US diplomat and economist, suggested ‘Government is too big and too important to be left the politicians’.  That’s a good place to start.

The most fundamental thing that is wrong with government is that it is full of politicians.  So what’s wrong with politicians?  Three things:

1.  They are the wrong people

2.  They are not subject to governance, as the rest of us are in the workplace

3.  The political system is flawed and undemocratic

Let’s look at each of these points in turn.

THE WRONG PEOPLE

Let’s look at the people who go into politics.  They come in many guises.  We have the career politician.  They leave school, go to University and study politics and economics.  They get their degree, join a political party then try to get some minor role in politics, perhaps working as a junior Special Advisor.  In the fullness of time they worm themselves into some candidacy, perhaps in local politics, .. and they’re off.  The thing that is missing is work experience – all too often they seem to miss this step.

A certain type of person can survive and thrive in this type of environment.  It might be ‘mouth and no trousers’, it might be ‘Johnny no friends’ or it might be ‘flash Harry’.  We all know the type.  If they didn’t make it in politics they would be estate agents, double glazing or second hand car salespeople.  The one thing they all have in common is their ability to speak with great authority and conviction on subjects they have no experience or knowledge about.

Is this the type of person you would wish to represent your interests and that of your family?

When I started work in telecommunications I quickly realised there were those who did ‘job’ and those who did ‘career’.  Sometimes the career types were really good at their job and determined to get on.  However, all too often there were the ‘suck-ups’ and the ruthless ‘b*stards who would stop at nothing to get on.  We usually found their footprint on the top of our heads.   Back in the day, there was another route to management, the top and politics;  join the Trade Union.  Turn up at all the meetings, volunteer for everything, suck up to the hierarchy and you’re on your way.  As you move up the Trade Union tree the side step into socialist politics doesn’t require doing the splits.  Again, this route into politics requires that ‘enviable’ characteristic – yes, you guessed – the ability to speak with great authority and conviction on subjects they have no experience or knowledge about.

Is this the type of person you would wish to represent your interests and that of your family?

Then there is the professional route.  This is dominated by solicitors and journalists.  Their profession is that of the ‘wordsmith’.  They are people who translate, interpret, reconstitute, spin and distort our common language to say just about anything.  They are story tellers.  I remember an old mate of mine told me to read my CV.  If I recognised myself, it was a shit CV.  If not, … get a job as a solicitor or a journalist.  It really is that simple.  They don’t speak our language.  Over the years they have fashioned their own version of our language – they call it journalist speak or legal speak.  More often than not it is simply bullshit.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where two people can have a plain language conversation, where both know what each other is saying.  But when a solicitor or journalist get their hands on the narrative and dive into the semantics they will now tell you what you REALLY SAID – and that type of behaviour has become acceptable!  Tell them to apply common sense and they will tell you that it’s not common and it doesn’t make sense?  Fundamentally, the solicitor lives for ‘billable hours’ and the journalist a ‘story’.  What do they have in common?  Yes, you guessed, the ability to speak with great authority and conviction on subjects they have no experience or knowledge about.  Again, this lot have an almost straight line into politics.

Is this the type of person you would wish to represent your interests and that of your family?

Finally perhaps, there is the political ‘shoe-in’ and the ‘silver spoon’ brigade.  How these people find their way into politics is for them to know and us to wonder.  All we really know for certain is that it is not fair, not democratic and not us!

Is this the type of person you would wish to represent your interests and that of your family?

THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Just as I was appearing ultra-cynical let me say that there are a lot of people out there that we would trust to represent us politically.  However, these people would not, could not or would chose not to do so on the basis that ‘if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas!’

But who are the right people?  A number of years ago I was extremely privileged to be selected by my company to attend the Centre for Creative Leadership in North Carolina.  This was my 15 minutes of fame, rubbing shoulders with the rich, the powerful and the famous.  This was an extremely intensive study in leadership using methods that would raise eyebrows in the UK to say the least.  I learned a huge amount about leadership and human nature.  But I took away their key message; symbolised in a tie-pin with a red 4 hole button I received as a parting gift.  On the first day of the course we were asked to explain the ‘button’.  We couldn’t.  On the final day, they explained the button.  The 4 holes represent the 4 stages of our life.  Many people only manage 2 stages; self and job, or self and family.  How many of us know people who do job and family and have little left for themselves?  Some lucky people manage all 3.

But what about the 4th hole?  Very, very few ever get to stage 4.  Those lucky enough to get to 3 may be able to extend themselves to 4 – this 4th hole is about community.  Some people have done well in their work, provided well for their family, manage time for themselves THEN work to put something back into their community.  These people are often our true leaders, our altruists, our philanthropists.

The good news is that there are enough of these people in our midst to populate the political roles in our society.  In Scotland we are  5.5 millions.  We have 59 MPs and 129 MSP.  So we may be looking at about 130 members for a Scottish Parliament – maybe?

Of course, there will be many, no very many other people in Scotland very capable of doing a great job in political office.  The Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th Century saw Scotland as the ‘intellectual powerhouse of Europe’ and perhaps the world.  This was neither a fluke nor a one-off.  Scotland produces these very people in abundance.

However, we will never attract the ‘right people’ into politics until we have the ‘right politics’.  At least we may know who are the ‘right people’, we just don’t know how to engage them.

So who are ‘the right people’.  The right people are people who are at that stage in there life when they are ready and able to put back into the community that has served them.  The right people are almost chosen themselves.  We must not try to define them and list excluding others.  The person should know when they are ready.  The people or rather the electorate must understand the qualities and attributes of those who will propose to represent us.  Our responsibility is to learn to discern.

We get the politicians we deserves.  as a nation we must DESERVE better then we must DEMAND better.  Remember the words of Jefferson!

We must now look at THE RIGHT POLITICS and Governance has a big part to play.

BAD GOVERNANCE?

Regardless of what job you do there are some basic principles.  First, you must be able to prove you can do the job and have suitable qualifications and experience.  When you are in a job there are standards of behaviour, procedures to follow, level of acceptable behaviour and sanctions or remedies if you are not up to the job.  If you fail to meet the required standards you get sacked.

If you are a politician – none of the above!

More often than not people vote for a party.  If you have been put up as a candidate, say for Labour, people will look down the list by party, pick out labour and vote for you.  You could be a paper candidate, i.e. just a name in a box or parachuted in to an area {probably because you’ve no idea where it is}.  There are no qualifications or experience required, whatsoever.  Once in place you do as you’re told, vote for what your told, turn up at PMQs on a Wednesday and jump to your feet with a question (you don’t have) when you hear your colleagues boo-ing and your constituents will be impressed that you were about to ask a  killer question – except you weren’t.  That’s a wee act they do?

Once, just once I would love to see the Speaker break from tradition and just pick someone at random who had leapt to their feet – and watch them flounder.

Once your constituents have worked out that you are a total ‘dipstick’, they have the frustration of knowing they are stuck with you for a further 5 years less a week – which may be how long it took them to ‘sus’ you out.

GOOD GOVERNANCE

First of all, any person hoping to represent the people of an area must be able to demonstrate their ability to do so, they must have relevant experience and they must have some affinity for the area they hope to represent.  All public representatives must be subject to stringent background checks and disclosures.  There must be a written code of conduct that they formally sign up to.  The code of conduct should determine the duties they will perform, their availability to their constituents, the standards they aim to achieve and how their performance in that role will be measured. Public representatives should have mandatory reviews with a quorum of the people they represent where they must be able to explain and account for their performance.  There should be a very clear set of guidelines that determine the delta  between acceptable and unacceptable performance and behaviour.

In the event that a public representative fails to achieve or maintain the required standards there must be a process of effective sanctions and ultimate recall of that person in a timely manner.

A FLAWED POLITICAL SYSTEM

What is democratic about a society where the majority of people are so disinterested, disengaged, demoralised or disenfranchised to be bothered to vote?  This has to be fundamentally wrong.  There must be something wrong when geography and boundaries can determine an election result rather than the numbers of people who vote.

When we give politicians a mandate to government on our behalf, based on their promises (sometimes referred to as their manifesto pledges??) there is something wrong when they totally ignore there pledges and do what they and their party want to do, or more likely, planned to do all along.

When a tiny percentage of people {for example UK Conservative voters in 2010} are duped into voting for a party based on false, misleading or empty promises and that party then go on to govern all of the people in the UK, there is something very, very wrong.  Especially, when you discover there is absolutely nothing you can do about it!

When a politician stands up for his/her beliefs and tries to represent their constituents only to be told by the Chief Whip to do something different or get kicked out of the party, there is something very, very wrong.

OK, I’ll stop now.  Most of you can think of many other instances where the political environment we have today is very, very wrong.

A GOOD POLITICAL SYSTEM

Democracy has evolved over 2000 years and even in the ideal it is a flawed concept.  The good news is you don’t need a perfect system to provide good governance.  However, you do need a fair, listening and evolving system to strive continuously for a better form of governance.

What we have at present is not just a flawed system of government.  It is a totally failed system.  We have a system run by the few, for the benefit of the few, on the shoulders of the many.  How else can you reconcile corporate tax avoidance and foodbanks?

Every day we learn of more incompetence, more scandals, more corruption and so it goes on. Government is entrenched in collusion with the press and police, the intelligence services and the very rich and powerful.  We are no longer shocked or even surprised when we learn of expenses fiddling, sex scandals, paedophile rings, illegal wars, arms deals and blatant law breaking.

Human nature dictates that these things will go on.  Common sense dictates that we must put methods in place to uncover these behaviours, stop them instantly, prosecute or sanction the perpetrators and punish the guilty to the full extent of the law.  This must be a zero tolerance policy.

A good political system is one where every person of responsible age feels compelled and empowered to be part of the process of government; even if only at the election stage.

A good political system is one where a candidate who makes a political promise makes a legal binding contract with their representatives and may be held to account for their non compliance.

A good political system is one which is constantly self examining and improving based on the wishes and needs of the people it represents.

IF YOU AGREE WITH ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF WHAT’S WRONG  YOU CANNOT BE SURPRISED AT THE BEHAVIOUR OF WESTMINSTER AND ITS ALLIES IN THE RUN-UP TO SCOTLANDS’ REFERENDUM

But don’t worry, help is at hand.  With a YES vote the people of Scotland don’t just get a new Government, we get an opportunity to cast off the old system of Government and put in place a new, fairer, more equal, more representative and more accountable system of Government. This should and will be based on a CONSTITUTION.  A Constitution is the charter for every person that determines what is their rights and their responsibilities as a citizen in a New Scotland which continues independent of the Government in power or their term in office.  The Constitution is a continuous citizens charter and a lasting guarantee.

We like it when we buy a TV and get a guarantee.  We like it when we buy a toaster and get a guarantee.  We even like it when we book a holiday and get a guarantee.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THESE ISLANDS THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND GET TO VOTE FOR A NEW POLITICAL FUTURE THAT COMES WITH A …..

LASTING GUARANTEE