The Gas-Lit Empire and the 'P' Word

Approaching publication day, we’re counting down the top ten points of interest in the Gas-Lit Empire novels, as revealed in readers’ comments and questions. In the last episode I wrote about the 7th most commonly commented on topic: Circuses and travelling shows.

The sixth most frequently referred to topic is:

Number 6: Politics

I was looking for a different word to describe this topic. After all, we are getting rather a lot of the P word in the news and I didn’t want to put anyone off. Can’t we at least have room in our entertainment for escapism?

So let’s state this from the start. By ‘politics’, I don’t mean the advocacy of one political party or another. I don’t mean the current political debates gripping the UK and America, although some reviewers have speculated on current issues in relation my the novels, seeing potential areas of overlap.

The subject that animates me (and therefore tends to come out in the novels) is a fascination for the processes underlying the detail of politics. I’m particularly interested in a strange paradox in contemporary democratic politics. Almost all politicians agree on almost all of their objectives. Yet they fight each other tooth and nail over the details of what should be done. Who would not say that they want to see a healthier, fairer, more prosperous, peaceful and happy society? How do they find room to argue?.

Differences emerge in two key areas:

1) How we prioritise different issues.
2) ‘Theories of change’ - how we believe those goals can best be achieved.

It is this second issue that I find particular fascinating - theories of change, ideas about how a society might be shifted from one place to another. We all want lower crime. But is that better achieved by increasing prison sentences or by putting money into drug rehabilitation? If cannabis were...

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