Have I found the answer the politics?
Well, perhaps not but I do find the idea of a cross-party cabinet interesting - I first came across it in Richard Reeves's CiF blog.
Political decision-making is far too much to do with government and far too little to do with parliament and its associated structures. This is partly because of parliamentarians' adversarial attitude to those sitting on different benches (back v front as well as right v left). It's all party drivel, oops, I mean driven.
But a cross-party cabinet would mean that all those who voted for the party that isn't in power should feel less excluded from government decisions and the elements of cabinet that reflect the views of the opposition party would be able to contribute at an earlier stage, which would hopefully mean a move away from the ridiculous situation we have of shadow ministers objecting to everything that springs forth from the mouths of their illuminated counterparts, even if the government has adopted an opposition policy.
Of course, there would be a danger of the minority represented in a cross-party cabinet just leaking information about revolts, arguments etc., but that could be avoided if the post was at the discretion of the government, or if the shadow cabinet also had a government representative.
Ultimately, I think we need to move away from the three-party structure. All the major parties mean something different at local, national and European levels - they don't exist as monolithic entities now.
Political decision-making is far too much to do with government and far too little to do with parliament and its associated structures. This is partly because of parliamentarians' adversarial attitude to those sitting on different benches (back v front as well as right v left). It's all party drivel, oops, I mean driven.
But a cross-party cabinet would mean that all those who voted for the party that isn't in power should feel less excluded from government decisions and the elements of cabinet that reflect the views of the opposition party would be able to contribute at an earlier stage, which would hopefully mean a move away from the ridiculous situation we have of shadow ministers objecting to everything that springs forth from the mouths of their illuminated counterparts, even if the government has adopted an opposition policy.
Of course, there would be a danger of the minority represented in a cross-party cabinet just leaking information about revolts, arguments etc., but that could be avoided if the post was at the discretion of the government, or if the shadow cabinet also had a government representative.
Ultimately, I think we need to move away from the three-party structure. All the major parties mean something different at local, national and European levels - they don't exist as monolithic entities now.
posted by Pudsk | 12:03 PM
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