Friday 22 May 2009

Martin Bell - Part of the problem

Having watched the earlier Question Time last night, I was surprised by the performance of Martin Bell, the erstwhile "Man in the White Suit".

He seemed to shy away from any kind of reform and seemed quite happy with the current system. (Having said that, Vince oddly didn't mention electoral reform once, despite being given opportunities)

His main argument seems to be that we need to keep the current system with the current strong parties and all that is needed is the occasional additional sprinkling of Independents. He kept using the phrase "a very British revolution", without really saying what that means other than him and a few other celebrities getting elected and nothing else changing.

He came across as as much a tool and defender of the establishment as any representative or the two establishment parties.

It did seem that he wasn't part of the solution...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is very British as it is slow, Conservative and inadequate. Britain mostly follows Edmund Burke's idea that we 'change to conserve'. FPTP and all the problems associated with it have another few decades to run at this rate.

Jessop Jessop Jessop said...

It's not just Martin Bell any more, now, is it? We have Esther Rantzen confirmed as standing for Luton South ("That's Life", says Margaret Moran) and, even more oddly, David Van Day (of never-underrated 80s pop duo Dollar) standing against Mad Nad in Mid Bedfordshire.

"Love's got a hold on me", he sang. A worthwhile policy? Perhaps. But will Van Day get a hold on Ampthill? Will it take Some Kinda Magic? Are these just Guessing Games? Or will he have to wait until Second Time Around? Either way, looks like he will Take A Chance on You.