Toby on Tuesday 

‘Glass half full…’

 

I am a glass half-full man. Every situation presents challenges and it’s easy to take too bleak a view of events. Of course it’s outrageous that, under First Past the Post, it took UKIP 3.8 million votes to gain one MP. By contrast, it took the SNP only 25,970 votes for each MP and, in England, the Conservative Party needed just 32,900 votes and the Labour Party just 39,300 for each MP. Under PR we would have won over 80 seats but the upside of events is that our one MP is the formidable Douglas Carswell, who is really worth over 80 MP’s on his own. So in many ways our glass is indeed half-full, as one really good MP is worth 80 of the mindless hacks who fill up so much of the other parties’ benches.

And to prove this, you only have to read Douglas’ 2012 masterpiece, “The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy”. Despite its bleak analysis this is an optimistic book declaring, “The West is in crisis. Governments have grown too big, living beyond their means – and ours. The true costs of extra officialdom have been concealed. Parasitical politicians have been hopeless at holding to account the elites who now preside over us. As a result, Western nations are mired in debt and chronically misgoverned. Should we despair? Actually, no.”

And the same positive spirit was behind Douglas’ response last week to the Queen’s Speech when he said, “I may be my party’s only voice in the House of Commons, but I shall speak on behalf of not only my constituents, but the millions who voted for my party. I may have only one vote in the Division Lobby, but I shall use it to support Ministers when they do sensible things, to oppose the Government when they are being daft, and, when I think it is possible to improve things, to try to amend things to make them better. I imagine that I will oppose much of what this Government do. I regret what is not in the Queen’s Speech as much as I support what is in it. There is a failure to introduce meaningful political reform. There is nothing in it that will make the Government more properly accountable to Parliament and Parliament more properly answerable to the people. There is little in it to disperse power outward and downward, or to personalise public services in the way I think they need to be. When I challenge the Government’s shortcomings, however, I will do so cheerfully and in the belief that, yes, things are not good enough, but that is because they could and should be better. I will be optimistic and cheerful in opposing the Government when I need to do so, and I will support them when I think they are doing the right thing.”

The months leading up to the EU referendum will be exciting, even turbulent. But the informed optimism of Douglas Carswell will be a vital element in the “Out” campaign. And I recommend regular visits to his own blog, TalkCarswell.com, for wise, intelligent insights into UKIP’s one voice in the House of Commons, but a golden voice nonetheless. In the words of the old song, it is the voice of “One Good Man”!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby