What's the Big Idea?
We live in interesting times. That is of course an ancient Chinese curse '“ may you live in interesting times means may you have plagues, disasters, political upheavals, warlords, murrains, unsightly warts on the nose and, of course, coalitions. But one of the most unexpected aspects of our new government is how very moderate they appear. Those of us who lived through Thatcher and the stridency of the righteous right look a tad warily at a Tory government which suggests it is going to 'roll back' the state, 'restore our eroded liberties', and 'deregulate government'.
One is bemused, a little, by Ministry of Justice announcements that Britain has way too many people locked up. One is positively startled by suggestions that the government intends to repeal legislation rather than loading us up with more of the same: and the surprise turns into gratification when one understands that the Identity Cards Bill is not more repressive nonsense about the social benefits accruing to those with their names addresses and dates of birth tattooed on their arm but a measure to actually repeal identity cards. So far so good '“ and they do seem to be listening and trying to find out 'what the people want'.
Getting it off your chest
There is, oh glory, a website now devoted to the suggestions by the citizenry about what Acts they want rid of, and what Acts they want passed. Open government! A listening state! Government by the people for the people! The website is called 'Your Freedom '“ Your ideas for your freedom' and was launched by Nick Clegg on 1 July. The idea is that We the
People nominate laws and regulations we would like to see abolished, specifically, so that 'anyone can suggest ideas on restoring liberties that have been lost, repealing unnecessary laws and stripping away excessive regulation on business'.
Government departments will consider and respond to 'the most popular workable ideas' which will be 'taken account of in a Freedom Bill', expected in the autumn. Ideas are ranked accordingly to how many votes and comments they receive, in an easily searchable format, which has a system of 'tags' to help guide one through the many, many valuable ideas contributed so far. Put it this way '“ all human and much subhuman life is there. We the People have lots of ideas, many of which strike in the middle of the night '“ instead of sending drunken texts to exes, people are sending their ideas to Nick Clegg who must have been very naughty indeed in a past life to deserve this.
Did the government really think that they would get contributions suggesting that section 61(b)(2)(i) a of the Animal Foodstuffs Regulations was otiose and should be repealed as a burden on business? Or that some underemployed political philosopher was going to give them the Big Idea? To be fair, not all the ideas are illiberal, racist and illiterate. Not all of them call for the return of hanging, withdrawal from the EU, deregulation of pornography and automatic life sentences for burglars '“ and some contributions are positively witty '“ the request for spelling lessons for people who contribute ideas to Freedom websites was particularly apt. But people are using this site to get things off their chests. Sad pleas for destigmatising mental illness, crisp denunciations of David Cameron for having photos of his children on his desk when MoD employees are not allowed personal items on theirs, endless moans about speeding tickets '“ what any of this has to do with regulation of the business sector is a mystery.
The site is moderated, and inappropriate material is removed '“ but ever so politely. One request to 'bring back section 28 because it protects children' generated the restrained response that the site was about repealing laws, not making new ones. But someone is having fun with the tags, and I suspect that it is the moderators. If you type in 'possibly insane' in the search box you get 40 hits, all fully-blown deranged rants. Other tags include 'scary voter', 'mail reader', 'homophobe' and my own personal favourite '“ 'unpleasant fool'.
Smoke and mirrors
All good fun, but what is the point? It beggars belief that any Freedom Bill will include the most popular of these suggestions, even if they were 'workable'. If so, cannabis is going to be legalised and the state will have to cough up for free festivals. The ConDems cannot seriously think that we think that We the People are now in charge? The illusion of being listened to by a libertarian government through the medium of a daft website is just that '“ an illusion, a mixture of smoke and mirrors to make one feel cosy. And one does wonder about the cost of this exercise, when money is so very tight, and the MoJ has none to spare '“ not even to keep Refugee and Migrant Justice alive?
Democracy does not come cheap, but a publically funded chat room for pub philosophers is not democracy, nor even a simulacrum of it: if the costs of this exercise are even ten per cent of the two million owed to RMJ for lack of which they went into administration then it is not merely the spelling which is scandalous. And, meanwhile, the real work of the MoJ goes on '“ or doesn't, as the case may be. After years of struggle, lobbying and argument with vested interests the Bribery Act was finally given Royal Assent in April of this year. Out of all the recent legislation that statute had a real, social and political function and purpose, and was intended to clean up the shoddiness of business 'commissions' and the corruption they cause domestically and abroad. Not a ConDem Act of course, but adopting it would be a good start for the new regime. But not so. Implementation has been delayed until April 2011, with yet another consultation exercise to come first, and the possibility of further delays caused by that. Let's hope that our 'freedoms' do not need the deregulation of all restraints on business.