There are plenty of things I disagree on with Boris Johnson – Brexit, £350m daubed on the side of a bus and his failure to act on the climate crisis. But he was right when he said: “They [the people] haven’t failed. It’s we, us, the politicians, our politics has failed them.”
The north of England, and plenty of other areas, have been abandoned by the political class. Communities with proud histories were hollowed out by de-industrialisation and decades of neglect, followed in recent years by an ideologically driven assault on public services in the name of austerity. Left to decline not because the political class didn’t know what was happening: more likely, they didn’t care.
So when the chance came for those people to give the establishment a good kicking for such arrogance and complacency, it’s hardly surprising that they took it. The result was a leave victory in the 2016 referendum. The status quo in this country is intolerable for huge numbers of people. The social contract is broken, the power game is rigged and it’s primarily thanks to those who voted leave that this crisis at the heart of our democracy can no longer be ignored.
Splashing the cash as Johnson seems intent on doing now isn’t any kind of solution. That was the clear message I heard when I visited leave constituencies earlier this year as part of my Dear Leavers initiative. The problems run far deeper and will only be addressed if we redistribute power as well as resources. Vote Leave’s powerful slogan “take back control” resonated because so many had no control over their lives. But they still don’t. Leaving the EU will not address this, nor will Johnson’s supposed largesse.
This Conservative government threatens our democracy in other ways too. At a time when we need leadership built on honesty and integrity, we have a prime minister whose casual disregard for the truth is legendary and who blows with whatever prevailing winds suit him. With the money and the media behind him, Johnson may be the prime minister who carries out Donald Trump’s wishes and ensures the UK crashes out of the EU – leaving us ripe for US companies to pick over the spoils. That is not what people voted for in 2016.
The White House must be rubbing its hands with glee at what is happening in Britain. Trump is driving a wedge between the UK and the EU (his “foe”) and has a prime minister (a “Britain Trump”) ready to dance to his tune. This doesn’t just risk us becoming mercenaries in Trump’s trade wars. The danger is far greater than that. Trump is openly provoking Iran, spoiling for a new Middle East war, and he will expect full support from his lackey in Downing Street.
This a dangerous moment for our country and if we want to protect and renew it, we need to be bold. To build on the revolution unleashed by Brexit with more democracy – not ignore the result with a “Bollocks to Brexit” campaign, treating half the country with contempt and reinforcing the sense that some views and votes can just be ignored. Nor is Labour showing any leadership. It has failed to use the political fallout of Brexit to put fixing our broken democracy centre stage. Instead, Jeremy Corbyn has put party before country in the hope that Labour will benefit from the chaos of a Tory Brexit.
So what does more democracy mean? Giving people a say on the terms of any deal with the EU is a start. That should be through a people’s vote, with a remain option on the ballot paper. We also need citizens’ assemblies to work through the myriad of difficult issues and trade-offs, to reach a consensus about what we want, as well as what we don’t want.
We need to change our electoral system too so that politicians are held to account by those who put them in power. Our first-past-the-post system leaves too many people with an MP they did not vote for and do not support. Proportional representation has to be part of any democratic renewal.
But it isn’t only our electoral system that has to change; so does where decisions get made. We live in one of the most centralised country in Europe, with nearly all the power and purse strings controlled by Westminster. The frustration at that lack of any representation or real power in the English regions led to so many blaming Brussels, when the problem is actually at Westminster. Where there is a strong sense of enjoying democratic representation, as in Scotland and London, people have the self-confidence to feel at ease with sharing sovereignty with Europe. And it cannot be right that Scotland and Northern Ireland face being dragged out of the EU despite voting to stay.
Johnson and his cronies like to portray themselves as political rebels, anti-establishment outsiders whose campaign for Brexit was aimed at overturning the status quo in favour of “ordinary” working Britons. Nothing could be further from the truth. Working people will be the ones who will lose out the most when he, Nigel Farage, Trump and the rest have finished.
Brexit launched a political revolution in Britain. Johnson is trying to use the upheaval to cement power for himself and his establishment cronies. It is up to the rest of us to stop him getting away with it – starting with an agreement that there can be no going back to rule by the old elite, in whatever form.
We have to work cross-party to forge a new future built on democratic renewal. One in which every single citizen of the UK has a guarantee that their voice will be heard. A future that replaces tribalism and fear with collaboration, and one that understands social, economic and environmental justice can only be delivered through democratic justice.
• Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion
