Trust

I would like to talk about trust, and in particular trust in politicians. Recent YouGov figures show a dramatic decline in trust since Johnson became Prime Minister. Only 5% believed that politicians work for the public good. This corrosion of trust reflects a crisis of confidence in politics itself.

Trust is a practical matter. It is a matter of trying to come to an intelligent conclusion. You want to believe things that are true if you can, and avoid believing things that are false. We can then deal with the world in a better way. The evidence is often incomplete. That is why the media and freedom of the press are so important.

Trust matters because the world is uncertain. It is useful to know whom I can rely on. Any alternative to trust would make life complicated and we move away from our basic humanity. However, that does not imply that we should give a blanket trust. There is no good reason for not mitigating mistrust and putting in place systems that help combat it or allow us to hold people to account whether misbehaving police politicians or police officers.

Johnson and his rise to power is not the issue. His behaviour in power is. Our political system is at fault. John Major's intervention highlights that MPs appear to lack any real accountability. They are elected by a small part of their electorate. Most are safe under the current first past the post system.

We also have parliamentary sovereignty as our core constitutional principle. This briefly translates as the MPs making all the rules, and often at the stroke of a pen. In simple terms they mark their own homework after having set the questions.

I no longer think that this is good enough for our democracy. The system is flexible but it is too flexible and allows for a dictatorship of the majority in parliament. There are no real challenges and balances of power. The courts, so often bashed by some politicians and elements of the media, cannot challenge parliamentary sovereignty. It is time we developed a written constitution. We have moved on from the early days of parliament where few people had a vote and the governing elite did their own thing, and we meekly followed.

Some commentators have compared Johnson to an unruly spoilt young toddler. A written constitution would not prevent him being elected, but it would act as a playpen, and prevent him or any successor destroying our house, institutions and all, following a whim or tantrum.