Elections are won by the Party the media support. The media are the propaganda arm of the neoliberal capitalists. In the UK, the media support Reform. If Corbyn/Sultana gets off the ground, they'll have a tough ride against the might of the media. But the point is, elections...
...will always be subject to corruption and to media influence. Democracy is not well served by parties/elections. A better way of achieving democracy would be government by Citizens Assemblies selected by sortition with turnover of 1/3 a year...
...Can't be influenced by media, much more difficult to corrupt, greater stability and continuity, policies from evidence lensed through critical thinking, active listening and deliberative debate. What's not to like?
The challenge is to get the mass of people involved. Some form of Citizens' Assemblies is an obvious basis, but is not enough without infrastructure to publicise the discussions. There was after all a CA on Brexit which went almost completely under the radar.
Yes indeed. It needs to be a political party, aimed at winning a GE and introducing the CAs. The Party- call it By The People - can't offer any policies, because the CAs would form policy. It would have to appeal to Left, Centre and Right - because the CAs would be co comprised...
...the appeal being to get good policy, to oust the cosy political classes, to stop corruption, and - dare I say it? - to take back control. People, doing government for themselves. I envisage local meetings...
...in all parts of the country. We give attendees the chance to let off steam before going into a more formal discussion, not about policy per se, but about which areas of policy they think need urgent, evidence-based solutions...
...I imagine immigration to be up there as one of the major concerns; there'd be inequality, housing, public services, NHS; and I'd hope climate change and biodiversity loss would feature too...
Our publicity would highlight the high rates of dissatisfaction at successive governments failures in the policy-making task, as well as the areas we would seek to legislate on once in service (NOT "in power")...
...We'd gain publicity locally, but would have to battle for national coverage that wasn't derisive. After all, we're aiming to end media dominance of the policy sphere, and they won't like that...
...I would make one exception to the "No policies" rule; I'd advocate for the introduction of a UBI to enable the least well off to take an interest in public affairs.
Is there a way to enlist the media in the process? In the end, they're looking for stories that their readership will buy: everything else is in support of that core goal. Or could we get local journalists to report proceedings and the underlying stories directly?
I'm not sure about whether a political party is the only approach. Ideally, we'd be setting up the CAs so that they could inform policy choices for the '28 campaigns. If no party picks up the policies, then perhaps we start the long slog of setting up a party. Which takes decades to get traction.