ktlight
19th July 2011, 19:15
FYI:
First Parliament, then Fleet Street, now the police. We used to take for granted, if not always the integrity, then at least the independence of these bodies. The House of Commons, we told ourselves, was not some servile Continental legislature: it was there to hold ministers to account. Nor were our newspapers mouthpieces of the ruling faction, nor our policemen agents of the government.
The vertiginous events of the past fortnight, culminating in the arrest of Rebekah Brooks and the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson, have left people shaken and angry. To the extent that any coherent image has formed, it is of a cabal of newspaper executives, police chiefs and politicians conspiring against the public weal. The British Establishment hasn’t looked so vulnerable since the collapse of the mid-Seventies.
What is to be done? Just as the worst possible response to the Westminster expenses revelations was more regulation, so in this case the last thing we need is additional regulation, or restrictions on press freedom. We face a crisis of authority, of legitimacy, of confidence in the system. The solution cannot be more state control.
No, the correct response is to disperse power away from our discredited elites. Just as Parliament would be strengthened by referendum and recall procedures, so the police would be strengthened by placing constabularies under elected sheriffs. Although voters were initially distrustful of the idea, a new poll shows strong support for the contention that “directly-elected police chiefs would be more likely to ensure that corrupt officers were brought to justice”. Indeed they would. Reread, in the light of what we now know of his cosy dinners with News International executives, this piece by Andy Hayman in (where else?) The Times.
Opponents of reform – any reform – necessarily rely on a measure of satisfaction with the status quo. Few voters feel such satisfaction today. The age of the expert, the unelected professional, the unsupervised functionary, is closing. It’s time for direct democracy.
source
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100097268/one-after-another-our-institutions-are-tumbling/
First Parliament, then Fleet Street, now the police. We used to take for granted, if not always the integrity, then at least the independence of these bodies. The House of Commons, we told ourselves, was not some servile Continental legislature: it was there to hold ministers to account. Nor were our newspapers mouthpieces of the ruling faction, nor our policemen agents of the government.
The vertiginous events of the past fortnight, culminating in the arrest of Rebekah Brooks and the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson, have left people shaken and angry. To the extent that any coherent image has formed, it is of a cabal of newspaper executives, police chiefs and politicians conspiring against the public weal. The British Establishment hasn’t looked so vulnerable since the collapse of the mid-Seventies.
What is to be done? Just as the worst possible response to the Westminster expenses revelations was more regulation, so in this case the last thing we need is additional regulation, or restrictions on press freedom. We face a crisis of authority, of legitimacy, of confidence in the system. The solution cannot be more state control.
No, the correct response is to disperse power away from our discredited elites. Just as Parliament would be strengthened by referendum and recall procedures, so the police would be strengthened by placing constabularies under elected sheriffs. Although voters were initially distrustful of the idea, a new poll shows strong support for the contention that “directly-elected police chiefs would be more likely to ensure that corrupt officers were brought to justice”. Indeed they would. Reread, in the light of what we now know of his cosy dinners with News International executives, this piece by Andy Hayman in (where else?) The Times.
Opponents of reform – any reform – necessarily rely on a measure of satisfaction with the status quo. Few voters feel such satisfaction today. The age of the expert, the unelected professional, the unsupervised functionary, is closing. It’s time for direct democracy.
source
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100097268/one-after-another-our-institutions-are-tumbling/