Comments on: Restoring trust in Parliament and MPs: PR proposal

By: PR Conversations » From Paul Seaman: defending public relations against social media hype…

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:37:15 +0000

[...] I’ve written up such an analysis here and here. [...]

By: Helen @ ClarkeMulderPurdie

Helen @ ClarkeMulderPurdie — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:23:20 +0000

Thanks for the comment on our blog – it looks like trust and respect are the big issues at stake for MPs. Sadly the MPs that do manage to do a good job rarely make it into the headlines, so I wonder if their achievements need PR?

By: Alan_Brighty

Alan_Brighty — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:59:42 +0000

Hi Paul. Sorry to come late to this debate. I’m just catching up after some extended travel. Why has Parliament lost the trust and respect of the people? In my opinion it boils down to two points: loss of sovereignty and the breaking of the social contract.
Almost 250 years ago, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his book The Social Contract reflected on the best way to set up a political community. Like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes before him, Rousseau believed that a government can only be legitimate if it has been sanctioned by the sovereignty of the people.
Considering that 80% of our current laws are dictated by Brussels that sovereignty has been largely lost.
Now you infer that we don’t want our MPs being dictated to by the people, but rather they should be leading us (by example, perhaps?). But that’s not how Rousseau saw it. He claimed that a perfect society would be controlled by the “general will” of its populace. Without this input from the people, there can be no legitimate government. Importantly, this input cannot come from representatives (i.e. MPs), but must be from the people themselves.
The heart of the idea of the social contract may be stated simply: Each of us places his person under the supreme direction of the general will, and the group receives each individual as an indivisible part of the whole.
Although most political thinkers consider The Social Contract as one of the foundation stones of democracy, it seems we have wandered a long way off of that path. You say that the people’s will is for hanging but the MPs are against it. Rousseau would say the will of the people must prevail. Opinion Polls say the people are against mass immigration; Parliament says it is powerless to stop it as it is part of the EU agreement. Rousseau must be turning in his grave.
According to Thomas Hobbes (1651), human life would be “nasty, brutish, and short” without political authority. In its absence, we would each have unlimited natural freedoms, including the “right to all things” and thus the freedom to harm all who threaten our own self-preservation; there would be an endless “war of all against all”.To avoid this, free men establish a political community through a social contract in which each gains civil rights in return for subjecting himself to civil law or to political authority.
Now step back and ask yourself are the civil rights of the British people being respected. Are they safe to walk the streets at night, are their homes free from break-in and burglary, are their rights to work respected, are their children being educated to the level needed in a competitive world, can they assume that their health care system is such that they won’t die in hospital while being treated, and since we are talking of a national parliament – are the frontiers of their land safe guarded by a competent defence force?
The answers to each of these questions will give you the reasons why the British Parliament has lost the respect and trust of the public whose best interests they are meant to protect.

By: colin byrne

colin byrne — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:33:44 +0000

Great post Paul and thanks for your comment on my blog and the links to your own posts. will read with interest. Best, Colin

By: Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:25:07 +0000

Great post! I’ll subscribe right now wth my feedreader software!

By: Ellee

Ellee — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:49:26 +0000

I know only too well how influential new media is – just look at Guido v Derek Draper and smeargate. Only it was totally the mainstream media which revolutionised politics today and threatens to bring down the government. I believe a general election and a total vote of confidence by the electorate in their representatives is essential to start the healing and restorative process. It will take many years for trust to be restored because it has to be earned.

By: tim

tim — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:57:44 +0000

Nice piece, well balanced and ultimately correct, paticularly agree with ‘cut the crap’
I’m interested to know your timescale and budget for this task?!

By: Restoring trust in Parliament and MPs: PR proposal « MyPage Builder

Restoring trust in Parliament and MPs: PR proposal « MyPage Builder — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:51:43 +0000

[...] here to see the original: Restoring trust in Parliament and MPs: PR proposal [...]

By: david brain

david brain — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:44:33 +0000

Well written piece. I really like the idea of an educational campaign. I guess we just take for granted that people know how Parliament works and it’s history. I wonder how much of that is covered in existing school curriculum. Either way, you are right that the instatution needs now to raise understanding and that it should probably do that directly itself. But who would issue this brief?