No winners as elections show politicians are out of touch

THE massive gains for Labour in the local elections seem to have thrown the coalition into a panic, causing some to bay for the blood of David Cameron and George Osborne. Typically, Cameron insisted that he was determined to carry on with his policies no matter how hard it bites... for the good of the country.

I seem to remember another beleaguered Tory prime minister whose famous phrase began “You turn if you want to...” We all know the rest, and what eventually followed with a tearful Thatcher leaving Number 10.

I personally don’t have a problem with a government who does a “U” turn – in fact if they do I commend them for listening to the electorate and acting upon it, but it appears to me that politicians once they have gained power seem to regard it as losing face to do it – proving they are out of touch with reality, and frankly that is the problem with politics today. Governments repeatedly question why less and less of us are bothering to vote: why we are apathetic about important issues; why the younger generation are failing to relate to politics and its effects... yet the answer is simple: there is no relationship between politicians and the greater public because the vast majority of MPs (regardless of some who do work really hard to bridge the gap) have no concept of the real world.

I certainly feel voting should be made compulsory, provided there was a box on the ballot form with “None of the above”.

As I’ve said before, we are all becoming tired of the same rhetoric and the promises and pledges that are made by all the political parties before any election, only to be broken or forgotten once in power – backed up with myriads of excuses such as “the previous government left us in a mess”. Let’s face it, every dammed government that has been in power has left the country in a mess, which is why they were voted out!

The one big thing that the coalition could do that would get the economy moving is to relax the ever-increasing fuel tax.

Finally, Ed Miliband can wipe the smug smile off his face at the electoral gains too, because I don’t see any fresh policies emerging from him.

Whatever happened to the real grass roots politicians that we used to have in the old days?

From: Michael Swaby, Hainton Avenue, Grimsby.

I THANK Geoff Sweeting, Don Burslam and Jack Kinsman for their pertinent points regarding the current crisis (Yorkshire Post, May 4).

At a time when government expenditure greatly exceeds income, the continuance of substantial “aid” grants to seemingly rich nations appears increasingly difficult to understand and justify. Is it that, in their minds, the decision-makers simply do not connect the two issues?

At one level, the debate is diverted by detail, such as the so-called “haircuts”, a lengthy disagreement not over the true value of weak Greek bonds, but rather their stated (book) value. Don Burslam is right to say that it is really all about people and nations simply living within their means.

At another level, the debate is stunted by politicians trying to deflect blame. I believe that “the eurozone debt crisis” is in fact a western solvency crisis, and that the US “fiscal cliff” will return as a major issue during the coming months.

From: Mike Gillson, Quarry Lane, Birstall, Batley.

MUCH is being made of the 32 per cent turnout for the local government elections last Thursday and the reason given is the public’s apathy to politics. There is talk of reforming the House of Lords. The Coalition should be bold and press for the reform of both Houses of Parliament.

Try this for size. Both Houses should be elected on the basis of proportional representation. Both Houses should have a fixed number of Members, for example a maximum of 500 in the Commons and 200 in the Lords, thereby saving money on Parliamentary pay and expenses. By changing to proportional representation, the Boundary Commission can be de-commissioned thereby saving money and the pointless exercise of constantly reviewing Parliamentary constituencies.

The present system only needs an influx of people to a particular area and the Commission has to re-draw boundaries.

This bit is the killer. The numbers of MPs and Lords will be in direct proportion to the voter turnout so, taking last Thursday’s turnout as an example, only 160 MPs would take their seat in the Commons and 64 Lords their seats in the upper chamber, and we tax payers save “loadsamoney”.

The harder they work to get voters to turn out, the easier their workload will be and the more colleagues they will be able to share the Parliament bars with.