Ukip Could Work with Dave If the Price is Right, Douglas Carswell, The Times, 27/1/2015 For all the froth and bubble of the looming general election campaign, it seems most likely that no party will gain an overall majority. All the more reason to make sure that we have more [UKIP] MPs. Why? Because only [UKIP] can be counted on to ensure that the established parties deliver the changes we need. [UKIP] has specifically ruled out joining a coalition government. We want change for our country, not ministerial office for ourselves. Government by coalition sounds cuddly and consensual. But the experience of the past five years shows it is bad for Britain. They are always cobbled together by Sir Humphreys in Whitehall so that control is handed not to those you elect but to top civil servants and the so-called “quad” of political insiders. [UKIP] may, however, support a government through what is known as “confidence and supply”. It means that [UKIP] MPs could be counted on to vote with a government on major issues but only if would-be ministers agreed to deliver on specific things. First, we would insist on a free and fair referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the EU. That means not allowing the machinery of government to give tacit support to the federalists. Ministers would have to be free to campaign according to their conscience. Second, it would be difficult to have confidence in any government – Labour or Conservative – that was not willing to bring about serious political reform. Parliament would have to be made properly accountable, with a proper recall mechanism. Too many MPs become MPs by working in the offices of MPs. We need an Open Primaries Bill to give parties that chose to use it a device to open up their selection process to everyone – and at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Ruling out a formal coalition means that [UKIP] wants to belong to the legislative, not the executive, branch of government. We do not seek to enter the Commons to use it as a stepping stone to ministerial office, as the main parties do. [UKIP] can be counted on to make government meaningfully accountable to those we elect. That could mean confirmation hearings for ministers, mandarins and top quangocrats. Whitehall departments could be required to seek annual approval for their budgets from relevant select committees. Certain standing orders, which have enabled successive governments to bulldoze through their agenda and strengthen the power of party whips, may need to be re-written. Those we represent support the NHS. We would only support a government that believed in the NHS too. That means matching [UKIP’s] policy to increase NHS spending by a further £3 billion a year, funded partly by clawing back money from health tourists. No extra £3 billion for the NHS, no deal. Too many in Westminster see politics as a game between personalities and tiny cliques: Tweedledee against Tweedledum; one group of career politicians competing with another to get to sit in Downing Street. [UKIP] would not let personal animus get in way of real change. We should not rule out supporting either a Cameron-led government, or a Miliband-led government, if – but only if – the right terms were met. The more [UKIP] MPs there are, the more certain voters can be that we will get the change our country so desperately needs. Precisely because [UKIP] MPs cannot be bought off by the whips or through prime ministerial patronage, we can be counted on to ensure the other parties honour their promises. Why, if you stop to think about it, do we have a parliament in the first place? Isn’t holding ministers to account the whole reason we have a House of Commons? The establishment parties in Westminster have subverted our system of democracy to such an extent that we have lost sight of parliament’s true purpose. Today MPs are seen not as the people’s tribunes, but as party placemen; whips’ office toadies who can be counted on to stick to their party’s “line to take”; cliché-mongers marinaded in SW1 group-think. It’s why, whichever lot hold office, we never seem to get the full spectrum of public policy options on everything from bank reform to energy policy. It’s no way to do politics and it’s a lousy way to run a country. [UKIP] believes that MPs should not represent government in their constituencies, but their constituents against government. Of course the Westminster establishment, from the front benches to their pet pundits, don’t care for us. Cartels never like choice and competition – in politics as in business. [(Douglas Carswell is [UKIP] MP for Clacton)]
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 02:28:00 +0000
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