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The Anybody Elses
It appears there's been a battle at the top of the British government. We, the people, have only found out about it after it's been lost and won. The combatants weren't elected politicians, but a faction headed by the PM's chief adviser and a faction headed by his fiancee. The fiancee's party seems to have won. What does any of this have to do with democracy? Not a lot, so far as I can see. What does it have in common with the carryings on of a Tudor or Bourbon court? Quite a lot, I think. The favourite pulls one way, the queen or mistress pulls the other; between the two of them the king is bewildered and befuddled.
When you elect a government in a modern so-called democracy you are in fact electing a monarch and their court. The court will consist of elected officials- who are answerable for their actions, unelected officials who are less so, obscenely wealthy godfathers and godmothers who need to be heeded and appeased or else- and a mixed bag of family members, cronies, lovers, flatterers, creeps, gophers and people who know where the bodies are buried- almost all of them hungry for power. A strong monarch may be able to keep this circus in some sort of order; a weak one- which is what Boris Johnson appears to be- will be pulled every which-a-way.
Come election time all the court wants you to see is the smiley face of the monarch- and the less you see of anybody else the better. But once the votes are in it may well be the anybody else's who get to run the show.
When you elect a government in a modern so-called democracy you are in fact electing a monarch and their court. The court will consist of elected officials- who are answerable for their actions, unelected officials who are less so, obscenely wealthy godfathers and godmothers who need to be heeded and appeased or else- and a mixed bag of family members, cronies, lovers, flatterers, creeps, gophers and people who know where the bodies are buried- almost all of them hungry for power. A strong monarch may be able to keep this circus in some sort of order; a weak one- which is what Boris Johnson appears to be- will be pulled every which-a-way.
Come election time all the court wants you to see is the smiley face of the monarch- and the less you see of anybody else the better. But once the votes are in it may well be the anybody else's who get to run the show.
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