Unbiased pros and cons of EU membership : Part 3 – Corrupt and Undemocratic? The EU and UK governments

In this post I’ll explain how decisions are made in the EU,  how democratic or undemocratic it is, and how corrupt (or not) it is ; and then a discussion of the same for the UK government.

How the EU works – How democratic (or undemocratic) is it?

The EU has four main decision making bodies – the European Commission, the European parliament, the European Council and the Council of Ministers.

The European Council is made up of all the elected heads of government (Prime ministers or Presidents) of EU member countries, plus the President of the European Commission.

Candidates to be President of the Commission are selected by the European Council by Qualified Majority Voting (meaning larger countries get more votes based on their population).

Then the European parliament, (made up of MEPs elected in every EU member country, by the Proportional Representation voting system), votes to approve or reject the candidate for President of the Commission.

Then each country’s government gets to put forward candidates to be commissioners. The Commission President assigns potential offices to them (e.g Commissioner for agriculture) and the European parliament votes to approve or reject them, until enough have been approved that all offices are filled.

The Councils of Ministers are made up of ministers from member governments of the EU. E.g The Council of Ministers when dealing with EU agricultural policy or laws would be made up of the Agriculture Ministers of all national governments in the EU. Votes by any Council of Ministers are also usually by Qualified Majority Voting.

The European Commission can put forward proposals for EU laws (regulations).

Usually any EU law (‘Regulation’) the Commission propose has to be voted on by the European Council (if a very controversial or major issue), or else the relevant Council of Ministers, and also by the European parliament.

The European parliament can also vote to amend (propose changes to) the proposed law. If a majority of the parliament and a majority of the Council vote in favour of the law, it becomes EU law. If not, it does not.

This is called the “Ordinary Legislative Procedure” – shown in more detail in the picture at the start of this post - you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

There are some ‘Special Legislative Procedures’ in which the Commission and the Council are the only ones involved in making a decision on an EU Regulation, with the European parliament only consulted on its views. These are only used rarely and can only be used in certain policy areas.

Then there are EU Directives, which are made by the Commission, and in theory require no one else’s approval to enter into force. In practice though national governments can decide how to implement them.

Also in practice a country’s parliament can choose not to implement a Directive by voting to “derogate” from it, as Ireland’s parliament did over the First Railway Directive, although the EU sometimes takes legal action against and tries to sue member governments for not implementing Directives (though the European Court of Justice does not always rule in the commission’s favour).

International Treaties (such as the extremely controversial Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership  or TTIP which the EU and US governments are negotiating on) are negotiated on by commissioners, but on a mandate given to them by the Council and parliament, and must also be ratified by majority votes for them in the European Council and Parliament, and by national parliaments also before they can come into force at EU or national government level.

This is all very complicated, confusing, blurs who is responsible for what ;  and far too much of it happens in secret (with the media banned from most meetings of the Councils and Commission, but allowed in the European parliament).

Even MEPs can’t make any photocopies of documents on the details of TTIP negotiations to show to anyone else for instance (1).

(This resulted in details of the negotiations being leaked – including that they did include the provisions for companies to sue governments for any regulation that limited their profits. (which EU officials had previously denied. (2)

This leak however makes it far less likely any agreement on these terms will be ratified – with the French government already saying it may not ratify TTIP after the leak (3))

However the EU, despite not being nearly as democratic as it should be, is far from being “completely undemocratic” as many of the its critics allege.

Three of the four main decision bodies are elected, and in practice no EU Regulation or Directive can pass without the approval of elected bodies. Nor can “unelected bureaucrats” (i.e European Commissioners) make any decision without elected representatives voting to approve them (or to reject them so they aren’t implemented).

How corrupt or influenced by big banks and firms is the EU?

For instance European Commissioners and their advisers are often former employees of big companies such as Exxon-Mobil – and some of them draw up EU energy and environment policy (4).

The head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, is a former executive at Goldman Sachs bank.

Many other politicians and central bankers in Eurozone countries, have gone back and forth between senior positions in government, and being paid advisers to or executives of Goldman Sachs and other large banks (5).

It seems unlikely to be coincidence that the EU has issued 1 trillion Euros of ‘Quantitative Easing’ money to private banks, but won’t issue any to pay off debts of countries like Greece (6).

And around a third of European Commissioners, on finishing their time in office, go into jobs working for big banks or firms (7).

These are just examples, not an exhaustive list.

Now how democratic is the UK government? And how influenced by big business?

How democratic (or not) and how corrupt,
or influenced by big business, (or not) is the UK government?

MPs – The House of Commons

The House of Commons – the MPs of the UK parliament - are elected by the First Past the Post voting system, which bins millions of peoples’ votes unrepresented in every election, and lets parties get a majority of seats on a minority of votes (currently the Conservatives have 51% of MPs on 37% of votes) (8).

In theory elected MPs appointed government ministers direct civil servants on what laws to make and parliament votes on whether to amend them, pass them or reject them.

The House of Lords

The House of Lords, though unelected, has little power in practice. It can only send a bill (draft law) back to the elected House of Commons (made up of MPs) twice, with suggested amendments (changes). If the Commons send the bill back a third time the Lords cannot vote against it, even if their amendments have been rejected.

In practice the Lords have helped to prevent Prime Ministers with big majorities for their party in parliament rushing through laws before the public, MPs, or the media have had time to look at what those laws would do in detail – because many MPs just vote whatever way the party leader tells them to most of the time.

The Prime Minister can appoint unelected members of the House of Lords to be government ministers, which is more dubious.

Big banks and Companies’ Influence in government departments

A much more undemocratic – and arguably corrupt – factor - is that big banks and big companies that donate to party funds often second their employees to UK government departments. They then get to influence, write, or scrap, regulations for their industries.

The Ministry of Defence has dozens of staff seconded to it from arms companies it’s giving contracts to . Energy companies second dozens of staff at a time to the Department of Energy and Climate Change – including some from gas companies writing energy policy (9) – (12)

The four largest accountancy firms in the UK also routinely second staff to the Treasury, where they help draft tax laws. They then use the knowledge of tax laws and influence over them which they gain to help paid clients they advise (including big banks and companies) to avoid taxes (13) – (14).

Chancellor George Osborne has even given a job to the former head of the British Bankers’ Association writing tax law at the Treasury. (15)

There are no laws preventing advisers or ministers taking jobs with firms they did favours for in government. And advisers to ministers and Prime ministers are not elected, but appointed. 

In itself advisers being unelected would not be a problem, if so many of them did not have close involvement with private companies who profit from advice they give ministers – and if they did not often then take jobs with those companies.

For instance Sir Stuart Rose, an adviser to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, is also a paid member of the Board of Bridgepoint Capital – an investment firm which owns the majority of shares in the private healthcare firm Care UK (16).

Mark Britnell, an adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron on health policy, told a meeting of private healthcare firm executives that the NHS would be shown “no mercy” and that this was a “big opportunity” for them (17).

A year later he went into a job as a lobbyist for a company that lobbies on behalf of private healthcare companies (18).

The former head of HMRC – the Treasury’s tax collecting body – Dave Hartnett, now has a job working for the HSBC bank (19).

Under him HMRC let big banks and firms off with not paying large amounts of tax, without prosecution, in “sweetheart deals”, while aggressively prosecuting people on ordinary incomes for tax evasion (20).

The Campaign Against the Arms’ Trade’s Revolving Door blog shows the many former Ministry of Defence Ministers, advisers and chiefs of staff who have gone on to jobs working in arms companies (21).

Former Conservative Health Secretaries Stephen Dorrell and Andrew Lansley both went into jobs working for private healthcare firms after overseeing the contracting out of NHS services to private companies that donated to Conservative party funds (22) –(23).

Before that New Labour Health Secretaries Patricia Hewitt and Alan Milburn similarly went into jobs with private healthcare firms after also overseeing ‘Public Private Partnership’ contracts going to private firms, and the contracting out of NHS services to private firms.(24).

Again these are just examples, not every instance.

Big Business Influence through donations to party funds

There are no serious restrictions on political donations from big banks, big firms or the very wealthy to political parties.

Banks and hedge funds provided over half of the donations to Conservative party funds in the run up to the 2010 election (25).

The Coalition government including the Conservatives continued New Labour’s policy of massive Quantitative Easing of hundreds of billions of pounds, with every penny going only to private banks  (26).

In 2013 Mark Carney, a former executive at Goldman Sachs bank, was appointed Governor of the Bank of England (27).

Between 2010 and the 2015 election super-rich hedge fund managers donated £10 million to the Conservative party (28).

At the same time Chancellor George Osborne cut the top rate of tax from 28% to 20%, and abolished stamp duty reserve tax on asset management funds – which would include hedge funds (29).

Although he did later exclude hedge funds from a cut in Capital Gains tax for other businesses (30)

Leaving the EU without addressing these problems will not fix them.

It’s private political donations and the revolving door between government and business that are undermining democracy at every level of government.

The Leave Campaign’s leaders – Would they protect the NHS and stop TTIP?

Leave campaigners Michael Gove MP, Daniel Hannan MEP and Nigel Farage MEP  say they would increase NHS funding if we left the EU. Yet Gove and Hannan co-authored a book in 2009 which called the NHS “irrelevant to the modern world”. And Hannan told Fox News that the NHS was “a 60 year old mistake”. Farage has been caught twice saying the NHS should be replaced with private healthcare (31) – (33).

Gove , Ian Duncan Smith and Boris Johnson are also members of a Conservative government slashing public health spending so it can say the NHS has “failed” and needs “reforms”, while promising “big opportunities” to private healthcare firms that donate to Conservative party funds (34) – (35).

So are Cameron and Osborne, who are for staying in the EU, but Hannan and Gove’s previous statements suggests they would erode the NHS even more.

Boris Johnson’s supposed opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is not credible when he wrote an article praising its “brilliance” in 2014. (36).

So if Boris has his way he will probably just negotiate a TTIP style deal, but between the UK and the US rather than the EU and the US.

Sovereignty here just means Boris and pals handing more power to big business. And these are the people likely to become Prime Minister and government ministers once David Cameron stands down (As he’s said he will before the next General Election) if we leave the EU.

Of course many of the politicians campaigning for remaining in the EU are no more trustworthy – certainly not Cameron or Osborne.

Conclusion – Leave or Remain in the EU?

So the EU and the UK government both leave a lot to be desired. Both should be a lot more democratic than they are. Both are heavily influenced by big banks and big companies through donations to political parties and the revolving door of people going back and forth between government and big business.

Which you choose is up to you. You may decide that getting rid of one level of bad government is an improvement. Or that there is no point in leaving one corrupt and not fully democratic layer of government just to give another that is just as bad more influence – and that remaining to push for reform of both is the best way.

 

 (1) = www.guardian.com 18 Feb 2016 ‘MPs can view TTIP files – but take only pencil and paper with them’, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/18/mps-can-view-ttip-files-but-take-only-pencil-and-paper-with-them

(2) = www.independent.co.uk 02 May 2016 ‘After the leaks showed what it stands for, could this be the end for TTIP?’, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ttip-leaks-shocking-what-are-they-eu-us-deal-a7010121.html

(3) = www.guardian.com 03 May 2016 ‘Doubts rise over TTIP as France threatens to block EU-US deal’, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/03/doubts-rise-over-ttip-as-france-threatens-to-block-eu-us-deal

(4) = Corporate Europe Observatory ‘Brussels, Big Energy, & revolving doors: a hothouse for climate change’, http://corporateeurope.org/pressreleases/2015/11/brussels-big-energy-revolving-doors-hothouse-climate-change

(5) = www.independent.co.uk 18 Nov 2011 ‘What price the new democracy? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/what-price-the-new-democracy-goldman-sachs-conquers-europe-6264091.html

(6) = BBC News 22 Jan 2015 ‘ECB unveils massive QE boost for eurozone’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30933515

(7) = Corporate Europe Observatory 17 Mar 2016 ‘Revolving doors round-up’, http://corporateeurope.org/revolving-doors/2016/03/revolving-doors-round

(8)  BBC News Election 2015 Results,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results

(9) = www.guardian.co.uk 17 Feb 2015 ‘Dozens of arms firm employees on MoD secondments’, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/16/dozens-of-arms-firm-employees-on-mod-secondments

(10) = www.guardian.co.ujk 05 Dec 2011 ‘Energy companies have lent more than 50 staff to government departments’, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/dec/05/energy-companies-lend-staff-government

(11) = www.guardian.co.uk 10 Nov 2013 ‘Gas industry employee seconded to draft UK's energy policy’, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/10/gas-industry-employee-energy-policy

(12) = Independent 22 Apr 2015 ‘Big Six firms use influence to dictate energy policy, claims leading environmentalist’, http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/big-six-firms-use-influence-to-dictate-energy-policy-claims-leading-environmentalist-10196672.html

(13) = www.guardian.co.uk 26 Apr 2013  'Big four' accountants 'use knowledge of Treasury to help rich avoid tax', https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/apr/26/accountancy-firms-knowledge-treasury-avoid-tax ( four main accountancy firms in the UK second staff to Treasury to write tax laws, then use knowledge of them to help clients avoid tax)

(14) = House of Commons, Committee of Public Accounts, 15 Apr 2013 ‘Tax avoidance: the role of large accountancy firms ‘, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmpubacc/870/870.pdf

(15) = www.guardian.com 09 Dec 2015 ‘Osborne criticised over Treasury job for former bank lobbyist’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/09/former-bank-lobbyist-to-head-treasury-office-tax-simplification (former Chief Executive of British Bankers’ Association given job writing tax law for the Treasury)

(16) = Independent 14 Feb 2014 ‘NHS adviser Sir Stuart Rose has private health link’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-adviser-sir-stuart-rose-has-private-health-link-9129592.html

(17) = www.guardian.co.uk 14 May 2011 ‘David Cameron's adviser says health reform is a chance to make big profits’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/14/david-cameron-adviser-health-reform (for private healthcare firms – also told them NHS would be “shown no mercy”)

(18) = Guardian 23 Nov 2012 ‘David Cameron's former NHS privatisation adviser becomes lobbyist’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/nov/23/david-cameron-privatisation-adviser-health-lobbyist

(19) = www.independent.co.uk 24 Mar 2015 ‘Former HMRC boss Dave Hartnett forced to defend new job – with HSBC’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/former-hmrc-boss-dave-hartnett-forced-to-defend-new-job-with-hsbc-10129195.html

(20) = www.guardian.com 29 Apr 2013 ‘Revealed: 'Sweetheart' tax deals each worth over £1bn’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/29/sweetheart-tax-deals

(21) = Campaign Against The Arms Trade – Revolving Door Log,
https://www.caat.org.uk/issues/influence/revolving-door

(22) = www.guardian.co.uk 20 Oct 2015 ‘Ex-health secretary Andrew Lansley to advise firms on healthcare reforms’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/20/andrew-lansley-advise-firms-healthcare-reforms

(23) = PULSE 01 Dec 2014 ‘Former health secretary takes up private management consultancy role’,  http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/political/political-news/former-health-secretary-takes-up-private-management-consultancy-role/20008623.fullarticle (this time Stephen Dorrell MP)

(24) = Guardian 17 May 2011 ‘Former Labour ministers rushing to take private sector jobs, report finds’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/17/labour-ministers-consultancy-private-sector

(25) = Bureau of Investigative Journalism 08 Feb 2011 ‘Tory Party funding from City doubles under Cameron’, https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/02/08/city-financing-of-the-conservative-party-doubles-under-cameron/

(26) = BBC News 03 Dec 2015 ‘What is quantitative easing?’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15198789

(27) = BBC News 30 Jun 2015 ‘Mark Carney takes over as head of Bank of England’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23118515

(28) = www.independent.co.uk  04 Feb 2015 ‘General Election 2015: How hedge fund super-rich 'donated £19m to Tory party'’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/how-hedge-fund-super-rich-donated-19m-to-tory-party-10024548.html

(29) = www.mirror.co.uk 24 Mar 2013 ‘George Osborne in Budget giveaway to Tory donors in the City’, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/george-osborne-budget-giveaway-tory-1781551

(30) = Telegraph 17 Mar 2016 ‘Budget 2016: private equity angered at exclusion from capital gains tax cuts’, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/17/budget-2016-private-equity-angered-at-exclusion-from-capital-gai/

 (31) = www.guardian.co.uk 16 Aug 2009 ‘Key Tory MPs backed call to dismantle NHS’,
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/aug/16/tory-mps-back-nhs-dismantling (Michael Gove MP and Daniel Hannan MEP co-authored book ‘Direct Democracy’ in 2009 which said the NHS is “no longer relevant in the 21^st century”. Hannan also told Fox News that the NHS was a “60 year old mistake”)

(32) = www.guardian.co.uk 12 Nov 2014 ‘Film shows Nigel Farage calling for move away from state-funded NHS’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/12/film-nigel-farage-insurance-based-nhs-private-companies

(33) = www.independent.co.uk 20 Jan 2015 ‘Nigel Farage: NHS might have to be replaced by private health insurance’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-nhs-might-have-to-be-replaced-by-private-health-insurance-9988904.html

(34) = www.independent.co.uk 27 Nov 2015 ‘George Osborne actually cut public health budget by 20 per cent despite NHS promises, analysis finds’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/george-osborne-actually-cut-health-budget-by-20-per-cent-despite-nhs-promises-analysis-finds-a6751311.html

(35) = see the blog post on this link and sources in it

 (36) = Telegraph 19 Oct 2014 ‘This trade deal with America would have Churchill beaming’, by Boris Johnson,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11173369/This-trade-deal-with-America-would-have-Churchill-beaming.html

Big Money, not the house of Lords, is the really big problem with our democracy - and it's not just a Westminster problem, it's an SNP problem too

I can see why Alex Salmond would suggest making the House of Lords elected, but on its own that will not fix the biggest problems with our democracy. The US has an elected upper house, and even more corruption in the system than the UK has. Nor will devolution, or even independence, fix the biggest problem with our democracy without other reforms (1).

That’s because the biggest problem is that we allow big banks, companies and the super-rich to buy up political influence. They do this partly by big donations to party funds and election campaigns.

The big political parties use the donations to pay advisers, advertisers, graphic designers and pollsters to design campaigns of leaflets, billboards and adverts to persuade people to vote for them. Then, when they’re in government, they pay the donors back many times over, with taxpayers’ money.

They do it with public contracts that massively over-pay companies and have no safeguards to ensure value for money for taxpayers, for instance with PFIs. They do it by permitting tax havens in UK dependencies like the City of London and the Channel Islands so the big donors can avoid taxes easily. They do it by letting them off with most of their evasion of tax even when they’re caught, through “sweetheart deals”. They do it by not enforcing anti-monopoly laws and de-regulating whole industries so a few large companies can dominate each economic sector and charge consumers what they like whether their own costs are going up or down. This de-regulation also led to the banking crisis.

In the last 5 years the Conservative party has got more than half its donations from the financial sector – mostly big banks and hedge funds. It has failed to bring in any proper regulation of the banks of the Glass-Steagall kind that would ban high street savings banks from also being “investment” (actually mostly stock market casino) banks (2).

To save on the millions every few years it would take to publicly fund the election campaigns of all candidates at a low and equal level, we end up losing tens to hundreds of billions every single year in big companies allowed to overcharge us for electricity, food and many other things ; in PFI contracts ; in lost tax revenues ; in companies allowed to grow too large so there is no longer real competition to reduce prices for consumers ; in de-regulation leading to everything from higher prices to banking crises.

The Revolving Door Between Government and Big Business

They also do it through the “revolving door” between government and the firms its meant to regulate. If government ministers, civil servants, MPs and advisers do favours for big donors to party funds, we allow them to leave government and go straight to work for firms they were regulating, deciding on taxation for, or giving contracts to.

For instance Sean Worth, an adviser to David Cameron on NHS “reforms” (largely contracting out services to private firms) left that job after just two years, to become an adviser to MHP Communications, which lobbies on behalf of the Priory Group, which runs mental health services for the NHS (3).

Labour in government were no different. Health Secretaries Alan Milburn and Patricia Hewitt both contracted out NHS services to the private sector, and both became paid advisers to private healthcare firms on leaving government (4) – (5).

 Many other former ministers and advisers, Labour and Conservative, have done the same (6).

And one of the ways the parties pay back donors to party funds is by allowing people employed by these firms to take up jobs in the same government departments, so that the biggest firms are able to scrap any regulations they don’t like, as well as avoid competition laws being enforced to break them up when they become too big.

Not just a Westminster problem – a Scottish and SNP problem too

And the problem is not just at Westminster. Even if Scotland was independent the same problem of big business and the super-rich buying up political influence would remain.

The SNP has already shown it can be bought by big donors too.

Within a month of receiving a £500,000 donation from Brian Souter, who owns much of Highland Transport group,  in January 2007, the SNP scrapped its policy of re-regulation of the bus network. And to this day the Scottish governments has no plans to renationalise or even seriously re-regulate bus services (7) – (8).

Legalised Corruption

All of this is political and government corruption by any other name. In legal terms it may not be corruption, because while there are laws against bribes in money, there are no laws against taking those bribes as big donations to party funds in return for favours at taxpayers’ expense, nor taking them in kind as paid employment, nor in letting representatives of the banks or companies into government to write their own regulations in return. But there should be laws against it. In moral terms, and in its effects on voters and taxpayers’ interests, isn’t it just as corrupt as taking a bribe?

The almost powerless House of Lords is a distraction from the big problems

The House of Lords has almost no power. The majority of what it does is to review bills sent to it by the Commons (often badly thought out laws rushed through by the government) and suggest amendments to them. It can do that twice. When it comes to the third time it has to approve them even if the commons has rejected all the Lords' amendments. That’s been the case for over 100 years since the 1911 Parliament Act.

Scrap it and don't replace it and the government can rush through half-arsed laws without any oversight or amendment and frequently no-one will even notice till it's too late.

Scrap it and replace it with an elected upper chamber, without having fixed all the other problems, and you end up like the US - with either a rubber stamp (if the same party or parties control both houses) or gridlock with almost no laws passed at all (if different parties control the two houses), and most laws only passed if they benefit big donors to election campaign funds.

I'm not saying there are no problems with the Lords - how Lords are appointed needs changed. Party leaders shouldn't just be able to hand seats to big donors to party funds, and there doesn’t seem much justification for hereditary peers.

Electing them is one possibility, but on it’s own will solve little and might well just hand the party machines and big donors to party funds as much influence in the upper house as they already have in the more powerful House of Commons.

Binning our votes unrepresented – First Past The Post Elections

Another problem is than the the First Past the Post electoral system used for UK General Elections, which often gives single parties big majorities on a minority of the votes and throws away any vote not cast for the winning candidate in a constituency unrepresented (and the winning candidate can win on the largest minority of the vote, doesn't even need 50%) .

In the 2010 General election more than half the votes cast were for losing candidates and were effectively binned unrepresented.  In 2005 and 2010 two-thirds of MPs didn’t even have a majority of the votes cast in their constituency. And it’s even worse than that, because of safe seats. The safer a seat the less voters bother voting at all  (9) – (10).

Lack of Democracy inside parties

A fourth problem is the lack of any written constitution or law requiring democracy inside political parties.
So for instance in the Labour party, the party leader can change policy to benefit big donors to party funds at any time, and ignore votes by party conference as “non-binding”.

Whether we are part of the UK or an independent country, private donations to political parties and the revolving door between government and big business are two of the biggest weaknesses in our democracy.

How to fix our democracy

Public funding of all candidates in elections at a low and equal level would allow the giving or receiving of any private political donation to be made a criminal offence. This would have to include any donation from any source, as otherwise companies could use phony “charities” or industry front groups.

Making it also a criminal offence with a stiff jail sentence to move between employment in a government department in any capacity and employment in any firm regulated by, given contracts by or whose taxes were decided by that department within a 10 year period would end the revolving door syndrome.

 Those two measures could take most of the big money influence out of politics and make politicians look to the people who elected them first.

We could end dodgy PFI contracts. It could end de-regulation of the kind that led to the financial crisis and allow the banks to be re-regulated to prevent another one (six years after the crisis there is still no law against high street savings banks also being “investment” banks). It could stop government letting big donors to party funds use government permitted tax havens in UK dependencies like the Channel Islands, and end “sweetheat deals” that let Goldman Sachs and others off with millions in tax at a time, even when they are caught evading it.

If we just have an elected House of lords, or get more devolution or independence, and think that’s democracy fixed though, business will continue as usual with the majority’s interests over-ridden by those of big donors to party funds.

A written constitution specifying internal democracy within parties (e.g constituency parties to have the sole right to select or deselect candidates ; votes of party conference must become party policy etc) would also be progress, but is similarly a minor issue as long as big money is allowed to controls our governments and opposition parties.

(1) = Guardian.com 20 Dec 2014 ‘Alex Salmond calls for ‘peasants’ revolt’ vote to abolish House of Lords’,
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/20/alex-salmond-peasants-revolt-type-referendum-abolish-house-of-lords

(2) = BBC News 09 Feb 2011 ‘More than half of Conservative donors 'from the City'’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12401049

(3) = Guardian 23 Nov 2012 ‘David Cameron's former NHS privatisation adviser becomes lobbyist’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/nov/23/david-cameron-privatisation-adviser-health-lobbyist

(4) = Guardian 17 May 2011 ‘Former Labour ministers rushing to take private sector jobs, report finds’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/17/labour-ministers-consultancy-private-sector

(5) = Telegraph 12 Jun 2012 ‘Social mobility man Alan Milburn is on the way to a million’,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9324145/Social-mobility-man-Alan-Milburn-is-on-the-way-to-a-million.html

(6) = Lobbying Transparency – Revolving Door is Unhealthy, http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org/15-blog/general/62-revolving-door-is-unhealthy

(7) = Scotsman 22 Apr 2007 ‘SNP under attack after bus U-turn’, http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/snp-under-attack-after-bus-u-turn-1-744256

(8) = Scotsman 12 Feb 2011 ‘£500,000 war chest for Alex Salmond’, http://www.scotsman.com/news/163_500_000_war_chest_for_alex_salmond_1_1493699

(9) = Electoral Reform Society 6 May 2010 ‘The UK General Election 2010 In-depth’, page 35,
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/images/dynamicImages/file4e3ff1393b87a.pdf

(10) = IPPR 2011 ‘Worst of Both Worlds -Why First Past the Post no longer works’ , by Guy Lodge and Glenn Gottfried, http://www.ippr.org/assets/media/images/media/files/publication/2011/05/Worst%20of%20Both%20Worlds%20Jan2011_1820.pdf
and
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/first-past-the-post-no-longer-fit-for-purpose/

McCann, Straw and Miliband’s Labour party – not for Trots, but too Stalinist, too Thatcherite, too British nationalist, and undoing much of what Atlee and Bevan Achieved

Summary : Michael McCann, the Labour MP for East Kilbride, denounced last week’s Radical Independence Convention in Glasgow as “trots” and “extremists”. Yet he comes from a party with more than a bit of Stalinism and Leninism in its leadership’s dismissal of the views of ordinary members, and lack of internal democracy. Some senior Labour MPs actually started out in politics as actual Stalinists and Leninists. Despite being a bit over the top sometimes, RIC stands for clear progressive policies, the way the first post-war Labour government of Atlee and Bevan did. In just 5 years Atlee and Bevan created the NHS, a comprehensive welfare state and universal access to education. The last Labour government under Blair and Brown, given 13 years, managed only a handful of progressive policies while adopting many Conservative ones, including covert privatisation and PFIs in the NHS  and “welfare reform”, both of which actually continued eroding the Atlee government’s creations. Ed Miliband’s leadership continues lack of democracy within the party and caving in to the agendas of the Conservative party and right wing elements in the media. Despite some decent people still being in the party, Labour has in practice long since ceased to be a party of progress and has become mostly about getting Labour representatives re-elected. As such it no longer deserves support – and polls suggest it will be almost wiped out in the 2015 General election in Scotland, even under an electoral system which favours it.

Labour MP Michael McCann denounced the Radical Independence convention in Glasgow as “trots” and “extremists”. His own party’s senior levels have mostly been purged of Trotskyists. Those would be far too close to democrats for the party leadership and machine’s liking. Instead Labour’s senior levels have been full of former Stalinists and Leninists for decades, with the party leader’s dominance in practice only exceeded in actual dictatorships like Stalin’s (1).

Jack Straw MP wrote in a letter to The Independent in 2004 that he had never been a “trot”, recommending a piece by Lenin denouncing trotskyists. As a student he frequently quoted Stalin. He’s had no problem with a Labour party in which votes by members on policy at conference have been considered “non-binding” – i.e ignorable by the leadership - since Kinnock in the 80s (2) – (3).

While Straw’s Stalin  and Lenin quotes may have been intended as a joke, he extended an apparently genuine lack of concern for democracy after the Scottish independence referendum, by suggesting  a US style law banning any part of the UK from seceding. His colleague John Reid (now retired) also began his career in student politics as a Leninist and Stalinist (4) – (5).

Some might object that Labour is not Communist. Stalin was more of a right wing Russian authoritarian nationalist from Georgia, dressed up in socialist rhetoric though.

Many Labour MPs seem, like Stalin, to be incapable of understanding democracy, whether inside their party or outside it. Or that their lack of democracy is the reason their party is losing more and more voters and members to the SNP, the Greens and others. Some Scottish Labour MPs also seem so obsessed with beating “the nats”, that they have become strident British nationalists themselves.

And many of them seem blind to the fact that many supporters of devo max, federalism or independence aren’t nationalists but former Labour voters sick of a Labour party which has adopted most of the policies of the Conservative party, from PFIs to “light touch regulation”

I was there when McCann was elected and ended a long tirade by quoting Tony Blair’s ludicrous final speech as PM about politics sometimes being about “noble purpose” .

In March this year McCann condemned the Scottish Labour party’s proposals to devolve income tax powers to the Scottish government as he was “ a member of the British Labour party”. So he’s one of the “dinosaurs” that Johann Lamont referred to when she resigned over London Labour’s refusal to give the Scottish party any autonomy (6) – (7).

Polls suggest their political extinction might happen soon (8). In 2010 many Scottish voters voted Labour “to keep the tories out”, and the tories still got in, so in 2015 that line is not going to carry the same weight.

I’m not denouncing all Labour party voters and members. Many of them are genuinely good people pushing for democracy , less inequality and for help for those in poverty.  There are even a minority of MPs who still put their constituents’ interests above those of elected representatives of the party and donors to party funds. The party leadership, most candidate selections, and the way party policy has been formulated for decades, are anything but democratic though.

Add party leaders who, as soon as there’s any criticism of the party in the media, cave in to it immediately, the way Ed Miliband did when Emily Thornberry MP tweeted a photo of a house in Rochester with three English flags on it. After wild claims in the media that Thornberry’s tweet was “snobbishness” against the working class,  Miliband immediately raised a single white flag and sacked her as a spokesperson. Labour MPs declared Miliband “the angriest I’ve ever seen him”, while MPs of the three main UK parties competed to show the greatest respect for Johnny three Flags– sorry, I mean, white van man – as if the two were always identical (9) – (11).

Thornberry actually grew up from the age of 7 in a council house, and her brother has worked as a builder (12).

A more reasonable interpretation might have been “Rochester has a fair number of right wing nationalists in it”, given the widespread adoption of England flags by the English nationalist right.

As one commenter asked, why did he need three England flags? Was there a house down the road that had two and he had to go one better? Was there a guy further down the street with four England flags who thought the other two guys were a couple of snobs?

Add party leaders who make policy not by even making any serious effort to influence public opinion through debate, but who let the tories and the newspapers and TV stations create public opinion almost unchallenged. They then relying on polls and focus groups to decide policy,  adopting the agenda their opponents have set.

Add party leaders and MPs who think their members and voters job is to support whatever line the party leadership takes unquestioningly, with any dissent being “disloyalty” or “betrayal”. Who think greater devolution has to be stopped because the SNP have a majority in the Scottish parliament. Who don’t  realise that devolving all domestic policy, and the revenues for it, is about the only way they might manage to slow or halt the rising support for independence in Scotland.

You have a recipe for a party whose senior ranks have mostly lost sight of any distinction between what’s good for them - the easiest way for them to get re-elected with the least effort - and what’s in the interests of the people they’re meant to represent.

You have a recipe for the Labour party to keep on slowly dying in Scotland as more supporters switch to the SNP, Greens and others ; and likely end up losing votes to both UKIP on the right and the Greens on the left in England.

And it’s not because of “indiscipline”, or “disloyalty” or “snobbishness”. It’s because of a Stalinist attitude towards internal democracy in their party; and Labour’s adoption of most of the Conservative party’s policies and rhetoric.

The Radical Independence Convention’s ‘people’s vow’ was more than a bit over the top with its claim to be “eternal” and on behalf of all future generations,  but at least RIC have some clear policy aims in clear opposition to Thatcherite – and beyond Thatcherite - policies. What has the Labour party stood for from Kinnock on? What does it aim at in practice?

Atlee and Bevan Versus Blair, Brown and Miliband

To me it seems to stand mostly for getting Labour representatives elected and re-elected and disciplining or expelling anyone who opposes leadership policies which most of the party’s members have had no input into.

There are exceptions, but compare the achievements of the first post-war Labour government under Atlee, with those of the last Labour government under Blair and Brown.

The first, in just 5 years, created the NHS from scratch, universal access to education and a comprehensive welfare. The last, given 13 years, brought in a national minimum wage, tax credits, some devolution, a peace process in Northern Ireland, and that’s about it for anything progressive. Most of the rest was adoption of Conservative policies .

The most glaring difference from Atlee’s government was Labour eroding the NHS through covert privatisation. PFIs draining the NHS and schools of funding and trained staff. Labour Health Secretaries contracting out as many NHS Services as possible in England to private firms  ;  and in the cases of Alan Milburn and Patricia Hewitt taking paid adviser-ships with some of those same firms when they left government (13) – (15).

 Privatised railways publicly subsidised at higher levels than British Rail got. A level of continued “light touch” regulation that ensured Britain and Scotland got the full force of a banking crisis which Norway and Canada avoided by regulating their banks and hedge funds more strictly.

An immigration policy of “detention centres” surrounded by barbed wire and deporting people who faced torture or death –  including Afghans back to the Taliban, and black Zimbabweans fleeing Mugabe’s dictatorship.

A foreign policy of doing whatever whoever is President of the US at the time wanted them to do.

Are the Conservatives’ policies in government still worse than Labour’s? Absolutely. But from Kinnock on Labour has always chosen the easiest route, mostly adopting Conservative policies and rhetoric rather than challenging them, so in the long run the tories still win even when “New Labour” wins some elections.

Even half the most notorious policies of the Conservative led coalition were already planned or begun under Labour – for instance many of the “welfare reforms” (including the ATOS contract) – again eroding Atlee and Bevan’s achievements.

And Miliband shows no signs of either allowing greater internal democracy in his party, or of caving in to the Conservative (and now UKIP) agendas any less.

Sadly Labour has long since ceased to be a party of progress and most of its elected representatives have become mostly focused just on winning elections the easiest way possible – by adopting most of their opponents’ rhetoric, policies and ideology.

 It looks to me like the SNP jibe that Labour are the “red tories”, while not true of everyone in the Labour party, nor all its policies, has far too much truth in it, at least for its leadership, many of its MPs and their policies.

Michael, McCann, MP, MPs, Labour, trots, Stalinist, Straw, internal, democracy, Scottish, party,
Leninist, Thornberry, snob, England, flags, Miliband, Atlee, Bevan

Sources

(1) = Herald 25 Nov 2014 ‘New home for those who feel left behind’,
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/new-home-for-those-who-feel-left-behind.25934988

(2) = Independent letters 16 Nov 2004 ‘Not a Trot’, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/bbc-fights-for-the-arts-celebrity-help-for-starving-people-and-others-6157963.html

(3) = Observer 25 July 1999 ‘Jack Straw: Jack of all tirades’,
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/jul/24/labour.jackstraw ; 18^th paragraph, 3^rd sentence ‘His election slogan was 'respect, but not respectability', and his favourite quotation was Stalin's dry epigram: 'Once the political line has been settled, organisation counts for all.'’ (paragraph begins ‘He was no long-haired hippy leftie’)

(4) = Times 20 Sep 2014 ‘Let’s preserve our Union in law to stop the SNP pulling it apart’,
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4212654.ece

(5) = Guardian 23 Sep 2006 ‘The dark horse’,
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/sep/23/labour.uk ; 12^th paragraph, 4^th sentence ‘Approaching Jim White, the secretary of the Young Communist League, Reid professed to be a convert seeking membership. "He told us he was a Leninist and Stalinist," White recalls.’ (paragraph begins ‘One year’s exposure’)

(6) = Herald 09 Mar 2014 ‘Labour split deepens as MP blasts Lamont's bid to devolve tax powers’, http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/labour-split-deepens-as-mp-blasts-lamonts-bid-to-devolve-tax-powers.23643212

(7) = Herald 25 Oct 2014 ‘The inside story of Lamont's downfall’,
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/the-inside-story-of-lamonts-downfall.25688852

(8) = Guardian 30 Oct 2014 ‘Labour faces massive losses to SNP at UK general election, poll shows’,
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/30/scottish-labour-snp-general-election-poll

(9) = Guardian 21 Nov 2014 ‘Emily Thornberry feels full force of Miliband’s ire after Rochester tweet’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/21/emily-thornberry-ed-miliband-rochester-tweet

(10) = ITV 20 Nov 2014 ‘Miliband 'absolutely furious' over Labour MP's England flag tweet’,
http://www.itv.com/news/2014-11-20/miliband-absolutely-furious-over-labour-mps-england-flag-tweet/

(11) = Independent 26 Nov 2014 ‘Donald Macintyre's Sketch: This blessed plot, this realm, this White Van Man...’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/donald-macintyres-sketch-this-blessed-plot-this-realm-this-white-van-man-9885775.html

(12) = Guardian 28 Nov 2014 ‘Emily Thornberry a snob? Don’t be daft, says van driver brother’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/28/emily-thornberry--van-driver-brother-ben

(13) =  Colin Leys & Stewart Player (2011) ‘The Plot Against the NHS’ Merlin Press Ltd, Pontypool, Wales

(14) = Guardian 17 May 2011 ‘Former Labour ministers rushing to take private sector jobs, report finds’, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/17/labour-ministers-consultancy-private-sector

(15) = Telegraph 12 Jun 2012 ‘Social mobility man Alan Milburn is on the way to a million’,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9324145/Social-mobility-man-Alan-Milburn-is-on-the-way-to-a-million.html