“If you don’t like the politicians you’ve got, kick them out and elect new ones, if you don’t like the political system, then change the political system” Nicola Sturgeon MSP

“Give us the hard time we deserve to make sure we make decisions in [your] interest” Johann Lamont MSP

These two quotes come from this weekends Radio 4 Any Questions when the Scottish panel were asked their views on the intervention of Russell Brand and Jeremy Paxman into the debate about how politics is conducted in the UK. This theme has been included in most political programmes in the last two weeks and some that are not usually political. It is a lot easier for someone like Nicola Sturgeon to make the point she has when she is campaigning to change the constitutional arrangements for Scotland and the way of changing this will come through a referendum. However as she knows the calls for change have nothing to do with the unity or division within the Kingdom, and have everything to do with who makes decisions on our behalf and how they do that. The Scottish system has a great deal to commend it, but the party blocs still operate in a manner that excludes views from residents being heard. Beyond a referendum on the Union, something she is not suggesting has any bearing on me as an Englishman, she is no closer to wanting a change to our political processes than Cameron, Clegg or Miliband.

Today we commemorate the Armistice that was signed by politicians in 1918 and as a result of the gross injustice of men fighting for a country in which they were not allowed to vote, the same year a bill was passed in Parliament that granted all men over 21 a vote, a right that many were able to exercise on 14th December 1918 in that years General Election. This same right was only extended to all women over 21, ten years later. Whilst there have been minor changes to the age of suffrage since, the system is essentially unchanged today. The decision to grant suffrage to all men over 21 was taken by men who had not themselves fought in the war to end wars. Yet they could recognise the injustice of most of those who had fought being denied this role. The decision to grant suffrage to all women came in part as a response to the ‘war’ of civil disobedience that was fought by the suffragettes. In making a flippant and populist comment, Nicola Sturgeon did not go on to explain how she as someone in a position of power would invite us to change the system. I don’t think she was serious and I believe she deserves to be held to account for her simplistic comment. However I am prepared to be proven wrong. I am in any case much more concerned for us to find ways of changing the system. It is vital it does not depend on a World War. I think we can assume that the civil disobedience which is already underway will continue to help shape the debate and possibly the political structures to come. The outcome needed is no longer as simple as allowing an excluded group of people to participate in an existing system, it depends on us identifying new ways of working that will ensure that all parts of society can be heard equally. If we begin working now, perhaps before the centenary of 1928, we can have a political system fit for the 21st Century!