2023-11-21
As per usual, or even more strongly than usual, many view the current state of British politics with dismay.
The Tories are haemorrhaging support, but few believe that Sir Keir would make a better fist of running the country.
Clearly some "outside-the-box" thinking is required, and I believe I may have hit upon the exact solution that would lead the nation beyond the current political impasse - and solve the Tories' "red wall" conundrum into the bargain!
Difficult times require difficult measures, but if we are to unite around a revised political settlement then all parties will need to share the pain for the greater good. So without further ado let me put forward a truly different proposal that will bring stability to our national institutions of government whilst also healing old wounds:
It is clearly time for the ghastly Brexit mistake to be undone by a Coalition of National Unity - a sort of Lib-Lab-Grn-Con confection that would permit them to abolish elections altogether, since all sides would already be represented in government, and this would free Parliament to undertake the necessary but initially unpopular measures required - people don't like change, but in time they will get used to it.
Leaders of the coalition Parties would become PM in rotation every three months - Sir Keir (being leader of the current opposition) being first. Realistically, the Tories don't have to wait for an election to do this, they can simply make him Prime Minister in the current government, with Special Responsibility for Rejoining the EU. They wouldn't even need to promote him to the Lords!
Sir Keir could then be relied upon to push through the coalition arrangements.
Of course Sunak would have to resign first but such matters can be arranged with goodwill (and an appropriate golden goodbye), and I'm sure that by now he's got over his ambition to lead the nation.
The new coalition might be called the "Westminster Eternal Freedom" coalition (WEF for short). It would clearly have to be greased as necessary by new ministerial appointments for parties joining in coalition, but you can never have enough government ministers to manage the complex machinery of the modern centralised monolithic state, and diversity is of the utmost importance in modern thinking.
These changes would be presented to the public as mostly formalising the already extant status quo ante, and would eliminate the massive distraction of running elections (which when all's said and done are no more than window-dressing) and the public at large would likely be relieved to abandon those charades.
Doubts about leadership would become irrelevant since elections would no longer be a factor and the PM-ship would be shared by rotation, giving equal weight to all parties. A number of MPs would doubtless have to cross the floor in order to maintain the illusion of equal participation, but they would importantly never have to face re-election unless actually disciplined by the Commons.
And finally, for those of our readers who may attach some credence to the notion that all the above should be taken with a large pinch of salt ... would you place any money on it (or something quite like it) not happening?
Perhaps it already has ...
