Mr. Cameron Won't Serve A Third Term As Prime Minister

In a interview today with the BBC, David Cameron, the United Kingdom Prime Minister, has said that he will not serve a third term as the head of the United Kingdom government.

My first, probably flippant, thought was "Is that a threat or a promise?" but my second thought immediately after was "I really don't want you serving a second". What was more worrying is that Mr Cameron tipped Theresa May, George Osborne and Boris Johnson as possible successors.

Whilst I can see the arrogance and presumptive nature of this interview it occurs to me there are some other worrying factors in a statement like this. We are heading slowly but surely towards the American style of politics, a place where I do not wish our nation to go.

Vote For Policies Not Parties

I have long been a supporter of "radical' democracy for the basic and simple reason that ours doesn't work properly. It does not provide the framework for all the people in our country to have, as standard, a proper say in the way our country is run and as a result their lives are worse of for it.

I have often seen simple and logical ways of possibly improving our democracy. Ideas like changing the seating arrangements of parliaments. Instead of having all members of the same party together in a bunch, why not have members sit in their respective areas. For me this would lead to less partisan behaviour and more behaviour based on local issues with members banding together to sort out matters relative to their own voters patches. Is that not why we voted for them? To represent our interests? This may have only a small effect and there are possible problems with it too but why not give it a go and see if it makes a difference?

Another idea that I heard muted was that we should not get names of parties on ballot papers,  just the names of candidates. Whilst this would definitely be a radical step, I can see part of the rationale behind those who talk of it. It would certainly make the electorate seek out what the actual person stood for and also make the candidate work much harder to get their personal message over to the voters.

The above may be a step too far for most, but what about the electorate seeing all of the party's policies without seeing which party it belonged to? A blind taste test? Well that actually ALREADY exists..... at Vote For Policies.