Devil's Advocate - Do We Need a General Election?
YES - Jasmin
Incompetent, unserious, fractured, and now undemocratic —- the state of our politics is a shambles. The Tories are embarrassing the United Kingdom on the international stage and are unfit to serve us at home. We need a general election — and we need one now.
On Monday, to the immense joy of all relatively sane people across the UK, Suella Braverman got the boot. As the woman who once remarked that it was her “dream” and “obsession” to see a flight take asylum seekers to Rwanda, most welcomed her dismissal from the office of Home Secretary. The news that former Prime Minister David Cameron was to make a surprise return to frontline politics and be instated as Foreign Secretary, however, came as a shock.
The move is fundamentally undemocratic. Following his resignation in 2016, Cameron is not even a Member of Parliament. The King has hastily awarded him a life peerage — the rather dictatorial-sounding “dignity of a Barony of the United Kingdom for life” — which entitles him to enter the House of Lords and thereby take up the role. So according to our chaotic, unwritten constitution the move is legitimate. But regardless of technicalities, no one can ignore the fact that Cameron is unelected. The move disregards the most fundamental principle of democracy: civic participation.
My adversary will no doubt remind you that representative democracy is not grounded on frequent consultation of public opinion. Ministers rule on our behalf once we have elected them — but that’s just the point. Whilst every other member of government is elected, Cameron is not. What possible mandate can he have to govern? When an MP steps down, there is a by-election–the ruling party does not just get to shuffle any old person into the seat. And besides, Cameron is not just any old person. This is the man who — whether he wanted to or not — brought us Brexit, something which 48% of the country voted against. If Cameron were to stand for parliament at the next election, who knows how he would fare. It is unlikely he would be a shoo-in.
Such blatant disregard for democracy is in keeping with a party which has repeatedly demonstrated utter disrespect for the office of government. Scandal has followed scandal. Boris Johnson unlawfully prorogued Parliament and lied to the Queen. During Covid government members hosted parties, breaching the very regulations they themselves had made law. Lest we forget, incumbent MP Matt Hancock — once caught extra-maritally snogging his PR-guru like a sixth-former in the stationary cupboard — has now featured on two reality TV shows. I could go on. The Tories are beyond a joke — –they are no longer fit to rule.
Unserious-ness is one thing, incompetence is another. Sunak’s move to bring in Cameron is an act of desperation. The party is completely fractured. We have had four Prime Ministers since 2016, one of whom managed to totally derail the economy within her 49 days of tenure. And within government, ministers switch roles as though they were hats, since what qualifies someone to take up a role in office these days seems to be little more than a C at GCSE maths—I am reasonably certain I am more qualified than Grant Shapps to be Defence Minister. The Tory legacy will be one of abject failure: inflation has sky-rocketed; people can hardly afford to live; and our public services are in crisis. We deserve better.
Fundamentally, the Tories have lost their mandate to rule. The undemocratic move to install David Cameron as Foreign Secretary is merely the cherry on top. We have long since lost faith in those governing us. A general election cannot come soon enough.
NO
I dislike the current government. Calling them a confederacy of buffoons is not particularly inaccurate by my standards, and if I were a British subject, I would vote against a Tory candidate in the next election. However, I believe calling a General Election would be a democratic mistake.
At the root of any democracy are elections which allow people to voice their opinion at the end of an elected official’s term, and give confidence to whoever they choose to legislate in their name. Asking whether a general election should be called now may seem healthy for British democracy: polls suggest widespread discontent with the current government and the Tory party at large, and a general election would allow for the people’s opinion to be translated into the Commons. To this, I answer that representative democracies are not founded upon shifts in public opinion between elections, but upon the results of elections. If the Commons changed composition with the constant ebbs and flows of public opinion, it would be a chaotic, unstable mess.
The polls which today announce a huge Labour lead could change at any time, just like they did between 2019 and now. Saying that a General Election is necessary because of current polling would lead to the conclusion that one should be called every time public opinion swayed to one side or the other — it’s a stupid argument: the reason why elected officials have set terms is to allow them to do their job and make decisions in the best interest of the country, without being constantly constrained by public opinion. Just because a party is down in the polls does not take away its legitimacy to govern, because it holds its legitimacy for the term set out by law following an election. The current House of Commons was elected less than four years ago, and it still has that democratic legitimacy. Though I would argue that the track record of the Tories since 2010 shows that they’ve been continuously shooting the country in the foot for the past thirteen years, the fact remains that they were given legitimacy time and time again, and still hold it. Calling an election because people have changed their minds since the last one is the equivalent of buying Aldi sushi and then complaining about the food poisoning it gave you: you ate it, and you have to deal with the consequences.
More than this, an anticipated General Election would be opportunistic and unfair to public opinion in its evolutions. To be called, dishy Rishi would have to ask the King, and you can be assured that he would not do so if it were contrary to his interests. Calling a general election now would be done to ‘cut the losses’ of the Tories, to avoid the even greater electoral wipeout of waiting longer. In a democracy, whether you agree with someone or not should not mean that you try to get rid of them before their legitimacy runs out — you wouldn’t want others doing it to an elected official you liked while they were in power. You shouldn’t call an election when your party is ahead in the polls, or when your party is on a downwards slope — you wait for the regular electoral cycle for the people to speak. Otherwise, it’s a grubby and opportunistic political move.
Representative democracy is something one adopts for better and for worse, and democracy relies on everyone abiding by its rules: these include regular elections and the respect of legitimacy. Unless it’s an absolute necessity to do so, calling anticipated elections should be avoided to preserve the integrity of democracy itself. So if you’re Labour, be patient, your time will come. If you’re a Tory, accept the fact that the people will probably vote you out of power when the time comes, and don’t try using political tactics to get out of it.
Illustration by Olivia Little