Extract from the books 'From Democracy to Dictatorship' & 'Corpalism' by Arun D Ellis

The Independents - Occupy the Political Space


“My name is Catherine Jenkins, I’m a Head Teacher and I’m standing in Peterborough in the next general election. I have the support of the local Independent group and will endeavour to do everything I possibly can to win my seat for the Independent movement.”

The applause was spontaneous; she was the epitome of a head teacher, a conglomerate of all head teachers all over the country; bright, down to earth, confident yet not brash, used to addressing an audience and brooking no nonsense whilst so doing.

“Like most of you I got into politics because of Colin Carpenter. When I first saw Colin on TV and saw what he was trying to achieve I was inspired. I’d missed him on RT and Al Jazeera, not being my first choice of channel at that time.”

The audience laughed dutifully.

“Until I saw Colin and heard him speak I was resigned to the idea that we had to have more of the same; the same old choice of the same old parties doing the same old things. I thought we had to put up with the endless lies, the constant promises of reform before they come into office and the inevitable back track blaming the previous government when they get elected. Like Colin I was impressed by the Occupy movement yet I saw nothing in it for me; taking to the streets, living in tents, it simply didn’t appeal. Also I couldn’t quite see what they could achieve. It was Colin who opened my eyes to the possibilities that exist for us, for creating our own change; he made me aware of the opportunities that exist already. We don’t need to occupy physical space; we can occupy the political space instead. Now that appealed to me.”

More laughter, and friendlier.

“He made it clear we didn’t have to have the same old thing; that we live in a country where people can vote. Where, just because there’s no real choice at the moment for the voter, it doesn’t mean there can’t be. We live in a democratic and free country; with freedom of choice. Colin tore down the veil and revealed the truth… we, the people hold the power.”
She held her arms out wide, as if to embrace them all, “For years the political elites have deluded us into believing that we only had two choices, maybe three if you think the Liberal Democrats can ever get enough votes to govern without a coalition. They have achieved this by making the two-party system so powerful that it is virtually impossible for any other party to rise onto the scene. They have a virtual duopoly in Parliament; they have a duopoly on political debate, that’s why everything is always the same. What’s more, because they rely on contributions to stay in power party policies are designed to benefit the wealthy few over the majority, that’s why the 1% holds all of the power.”

Someone was fidgeting in the front row, she stared at him and he stilled under her basilisk gaze.

“Colin shone a light on all that; we don’t need a new party with big party finance; we can use the current system to put forward decent, public-spirited, well educated people to stand as independents in their own communities. We just need to get out on the streets and make those communities as aware of the possibilities as we are, aware of the possibility of a new government lead by independently minded, intelligent, educated, experienced, caring professionals who will work their hardest for the people of this country.”

She paused and sipped water whilst the audience applauded; she waited for them to finish. “Now the most common objection that people raise is the same one that the main parties will throw at us, that as independents we can’t form a united government or formulate policy… but they are wrong, we can.”

The audience applauded.

“When we win the next election,” she stated to resounding cheers, “when we win the next election and believe me, win it we will… we will choose who will be in the cabinet, we will vote for whomever we want to lead us….”

There were more cheers from the audience and chants of ‘Colin, Colin, Colin’.

Catherine smiled and raised her arms for silence, “We will hold departmental consultation forums and debate what policy should be. We will form the best policy for the country and for the people and we will vote in the ministers to head each government department. We will ensure that proper representation is maintained and we won’t be susceptible to lobby group enticements or pressure group blackmail because we are independent and we can and will work together to achieve the best and the right policies for us all.”

There were cheers from the hall.

“We will instigate true political reform, we will create a method of government funding for independent political candidates, and we’ll ban parties from politics altogether, and enforce a new system where only people who have independent policies can stand for Parliament. Current and past MPs will be banned from politics altogether for they have proven disreputable in all their dealings. We will break forever this terrible stranglehold the party system has on power in this country, in future, we the people will be represented by truly honourable people, honourable people in not just name but in deed as well. We will do away with the Lords and hereditary political power, we will create a new elected second chamber which will also be filled with independent representatives, and this new chamber will be charged with identifying the weaknesses in policy put forward by the first chamber and it will also work to the benefit of all and not along party lines.”

She walked across the platform to engage with those sitting at the side, “We will introduce full proportional representation where an individual’s vote more truly represents the leanings of the nation, where the most preferred independent candidate can succeed and move on to represent the needs and wishes of his or her community as far as is practicably possible.”

There was general applause whilst Catherine walked back, centre stage.

“But we are left with the question of the head of state, the question of whether we should seek an elected head of state such as a President or whether we should retain the hereditary head of state, the monarch and there are good arguments for both.”

There was a low murmuring from the floor.

She spoke quickly to quell concerns, “Clearly the corruption that exists in American politics is enough to dissuade anyone from pursuing that line but the greed and selfishness of past monarchs is also enough to persuade the Republicans amongst us that that isn’t the way to go either. Yet a country needs a head of state, it must have one. But the questions we can’t avoid asking are, which type?
How do we make it more effective?”

She paused and looked around the hall, “I think there is a general reluctance of most candidates to change the system we have at the moment, for whatever reasons and although there is a growing movement towards the idea of a Republic this still only represents a small percentage of the population. With that in mind it would be wrong for anyone to attempt to change the current structure. However, it has been suggested that the government should actually choose the next monarch as opposed to allowing the first born to be heir apparent simply by courtesy of being born first. There is a growing belief that possibly it would be wiser for the government to choose the best of the relevant royal siblings as monarch.”

She held up her hands to quiet them, “Why should the country have the family idiot as its head of state simply because he or she was born first? Many cultures in the past have had a system where the dying monarch names his or her successor choosing the most capable. I believe this is something that the Romans did,” she said smiling, “I think this is something that we would explore as a government and having said that I believe it would also be possible to include royal cousins as potential candidates for the post, within reason of course, otherwise it could get a bit farcical, the 2nd cousin ten times removed.”

A few laughs rose from the floor and some approving applause.

“You can be sure that we will introduce a system of more regular elections, each year one quarter of each house will have to stand for re-election. In this way we will ensure upward feedback from the people and after the first 4 years a system will prevail where elected MPs will sit for 4 years before having to stand for their seats again. But still, every year a quarter of each house will be refreshed. In this way we ensure no one person or group becomes too powerful, we will ensure we get energizing fresh representation from the people and don’t become isolated and separate, out of touch.”

The audience were clapping now, excited by the vision, she raised her hands for quiet “I will cede the stage now but I want to say one last thing, and that is…you can be sure that these things will be discussed over and again until we get what’s right for the country as a whole and not for the tiny minority as is the case at the moment.”

Thanks for reading

Arun





More books in the 'Corpalism' series















Compendium editions