How can we force politicians to do what they say?

Mike here discusses the difficulty of actually holding politicians to do what they say they’d do, with examples not just of Patrick Mercer holding on to his seat, but also of the way all the parties have betrayed the electorate. The refusal of politicians to abide by their promises is so old, that I can remember Mike Yarwood on his show waaaaay back in the 1970s making a joke about ‘lies = election promises’. What is most enlightening here is John Elwyn Kimber’s explanation of the Libs turn to Neoliberalism. It’s a return to the ‘Orange’ Liberalism of the laissez faire ‘Manchester School’. Hence presumably the title of the ‘Orange Book’, the statement of their ideas.

Mike Sivier's blog

One down: Patrick Mercer resigned because the weight of corruption allegations against him was too great. But what are the other 649 MPs hiding?

We need to talk about the culture of deception that is festering at the heart of the British political classes.

Every party is guilty of this to some degree – all of them. They have all made promises to the electorate and then, once in positions of power, they have done exactly whatever else they wanted.

On Tuesday, Patrick Mercer resigned as an MP rather than face suspension from the House of Commons over allegations that, rather than carrying out the will of his constituents, he had corruptly set up an All-Party Parliamentary Group to life Fiji’s suspension from the Commonwealth, after having been offered money to do so by undercover reporters.

His resignation came 11 months after he resigned from the Parliamentary Conservative Party, and…

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