The interview with Boris Johnson on Monday evening on Newsnight from Manchester revealed a great deal about the broken windows that litter our political landscape. In a  discussion with Jeremy Paxman strikingly similar to the one that the two men had in 2011 from the same location, the issue of leadership of the Conservative Party inevitably arose. Whatever the future for the Conservative Party with its diminishing membership and for the moment shrinking popularity, the clear indication from Monday was that Boris is intending to return to Parliament. The only minor detail to be resolved by Boris and a few close friends is to decide which constituency will act as the nest from which Cuckoo Boris will legitimise his return to Westminster in Spring 2015. The Electoral Reform Society has campaigned in recent months for a more equal democracy. They have a number of papers on the subject including ‘Reviving the Health of our Democracy’ which includes amongst its recommendations “Giving citizens equal power to shape their future by improving access and preventing politics being unduly influenced by the few.” Boris is unashamedly one of the few, indeed when the few are being identified he is a first amongst equals. For him the decision to stand as an MP as part of the 2015 General Election campaign is contingent only on the impact on his lifestyle and the gameplay for the future of the party and his other endeavours. The concept that there would be a competitive process to select candidates by the local party in a given constituency, and then that the local electors will carefully weigh up which candidate from the range of parties presented is true only in a select number of constituencies.

There will be  a few renegade Conservative Associations where Boris and his influence will simply not impress the gatekeepers. These Associations will not allow themselves to be leaned upon, and any prospect for Boris will in any event disappear when he explains to the panel, that he intends to continue running the Capital for another year. They will also have worked out that there is a good chance that once he has exited the office of Mayor, that Boris will be a shoe in for Party Leader and so their needs will never really get a look in. There are also some constituencies such as Hove, Brighton Kemptown, Eastbourne, Hastings and Rye and Crawley (just to name some Sussex Constituencies) where the electors could upset the electoral Arithmetic and indeed take great delight in giving the Mayor of London a bloody nose. However there are also a large number of constituencies where the local association will happily offer Boris first refusal on the selection process and the electors are so committed to the Conservative Party that the proverbial donkey with a blue rosette would win the election. The same is true of constituencies where the local Labour Party would open the way for a similarly well connected candidate and where the electors are so attuned to Labour that a donkey with a red rosette would make it through.

Each of these constituencies and local party groups are in effect the political equivalent of the broken window that leads to the community believing that windows like this will always be broken, and frankly that is all the community can expect in the future. In a system with integrity, the leaders of our Political Parties would agonise and attempt to change the system to avoid such failings. In effect they would work hard to ensure that the broken windows are mended promptly and ensure that our democracy is seen as effective and robust. However that is asking for people like Boris Johnson to accept that the system which serves them so well needs to be changed to their disadvantage. In effect to get the Cuckoo’s to change their behaviour and start building nests of their own. The prospect of that happening without our intervention is sadly very low. We need to support the work of the Electoral Reform Society to challenge the parties and their leaders to start fixing windows, not to do as Boris seemed to suggest, which is to break another one, something he used to excel in!