The final part of this mini-series on democracy and independence focuses on raising standards of political conduct and making politics more representative.
There are few ways to measure whether political standards have slipped, so whether you think politicians are “getting worse” or not is largely a matter of opinion.
One indicator would be the number of investigations carried out by Standards bodies.
During the Fourth Senedd (2011-2016), there were reportedly1 5 reports considered by the Senedd’s Standards Committee. During the Fifth Senedd (2016-2021) this increased to 16 reports, 12 of those being completed.
With two years of the Sixth Senedd (2021-2026) remaining, 9 reports have been completed and published by the Standards Committee with at least another 6 being considered at the time of posting.
At local government level, referrals from the Public Services Ombudsman to the Adjudication Panel for Wales peaked at 13 in 2010-11; the average of between 3-5 a year hasn’t changed that much since the Panel was established.
Are we looking at things through a rose-tinted lens?
Ask yourselves honestly: have politicians ever been thought of as upstanding and respectable?
That might have been the case before the tabloid press resurgance of the 1960s, bringing with it a cynicism about politics imported and amplified by a certain Australian media mogul.
You can compare it to football. Before the mid-2000s, most of us only saw highlights, making players and the quality of games appear better than they were. You wouldn’t see players misplacing passes, sending shots into Row Z, or 0-0s between footballing giants.
Now, everything is documented, discussed and analysed. You’re far more likely to read a bad news story involving politicians or politics – or some sort of backroom “gossip” – than hear about the day-to-day stuff because the 24-hour news cycle requires a constantly running conveyor belt of “content” to be sustainable. Add to that the fact that people who are dissatisfied with something or someone have always shouted the loudest and it’s perhaps no surprise that many of us think that things are going backwards.
But who are the “crap politicians”? Here’s my tongue-in-cheek guide….which pretty much covers every single one:
Why do people think politicians are getting worse?
The point worth making is that politicians have always been a bit crap – and that’s fine. Expecting them to be perfect is setting yourself up for disappointment – and I’m willing to bet none of us can say we’re perfect either.
It becomes a problem when elected representatives either pretend the sun shines out of their backsides, or they give in to their (and our) worst instincts.
There’s formal polling that indicates high levels of cynicism towards politicians (shock, horror). Quoted figures include only 5% believing politicians have the public interest at heart2 and one-in-three voters believing our current generation of politicians are “the worst ever”3.
Elected representatives mirror the society they’ve been elected to represent, so if they’re “getting worse” it’s because we are.
We’ve become more reactionary and intolerant of opposing views. A hot take and “scoring points” matter more than critical thinking and talking issues through – because we don’t have the attention spans for that anymore.
Either you couldn’t care less about politics, or you support a party or ideology like a football ultra. We’re more cynical, jaded and obsessed with style over substance. Everyone is the main character.
You can put in zero effort as long as you give the appearance of doing something (on finance and 4.9% APR). Punching down is fine because there are always deserving and undeserving groups.
So we shouldn’t be surprised that we start to elect people to run things who are like that ↑.
What can be done to improve the “quality” of our politicians?
The bad news is there’s no quick fix. Democracy is and always will be a lottery as it’s ultimately down to the candidates and parties we vote for.
- Democratic literacy – It’s an annoying trend to call basic things “literacy”, but this was covered in Part I. It would mean giving the public the skills to vote wisely and think carefully about what politicians and candidates offer – not just vote for the sake of voting (which is what many politicians want to happen).
- Quality over quantity: cut the number of elected representatives – We’ve long been told, particularly concerning the Senedd, that more politicians mean better scrutiny. What’s likely to happen is we would elect a greater number of politicians similar to the ones we have now (and are supposedly dissatisfied with). Cutting the number of elected positions might improve competition for seats and force political parties to think carefully about who they select to stand for them.
- A clear “development pathway” and “talent scouting” – We should get to a situation where nobody is elected to the national parliament without prior public-facing political experience (student politics and trade unions don’t count). That could be as a local councillor, directly-elected mayor or some other public role. Parties should properly nurture “promising” politicians from lower down the food chain to make a step up – and this might help improve diversity and representation too (more later).
- A revamped standards system – I’ll be looking at this later, but the sanctions for misbehaving or poor-quality politicians should match the offence.
1. Senedd Cymru, Standards of Conduct Committee (March 2021). “Legacy Report” (p11-12). Available at: https://senedd.wales/media/kludyo31/cr-ld14315-e.pdf
2. John Humphreys, YouGov (7th December 2021). “Are our politicians the worst ever?”. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/40063-john-humphrys-are-our-politicians-worst-ever
3. Edward Malnick, The Telegraph (23rd September 2023). “Politicians are the worst ever – say one-in-three voters”. Paywalled article available here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/23/opinion-poll-working-class-tories-trump/
