ARTICLE DATED 14 FEBRUARY 2015

Local politics is broken, with voting down at record lows, and the heart of politicians being questioned. But are some ethnicities more disenfranchised than others? And what can be done to improve the representation of people. Cllr Da Costa is interviewed by  broadcaster, Bridgitte Tetteh, from BBC Radio Berkshire. With bonus interview of  Times reporter Andrew Norfolk on PM with Carolyn Quinn.

 

The interview

BBC Radio Berkshire’s, Bridgitte Tetteh discusses political involvement with Simon Woolley, and Cllr Wisdom Da Costa 

 

The smoking gun

During the 2015 local elections, voter turnout was down to 36%.

To put that into perspective, if you can mobilise 20% of people, you can control the country with an iron rod.

That’s schools, social services, roads & traffic lights, local transport, bin collection, parking tickets, 6million workers, and a budget of £100billion.

 

Disillusioned & disenfranchised – so what?

So, it’s clear that we are all seriously disillusioned by party politicians, but are there any ethnic groups who feel more disaffected than others?

Interestingly, when you compare the ethnicity of Councillors, with the ethnicity of their residents, data for the Thames Valley shows that;

• Asians are over represented
• Afro-Carribean are seriously under represented
• White, indigenous population, is also underrepresented

 

Democracy starts with your vote, and then continues with your involvement 

Please try this at home

Most people do not understand how the system works practically. I want you to read the following line twice, but the second time, replace the word “democracy” with the phrase “your authority”

“Democracy doesn’t end at the ballot box. Democracy starts with your vote, and then continues with your involvement.”

Can you see why you must get involved? In a nutshell, if you don’t get involved, self-interested people, usually party politicians, will control your destiny, and what happens in your town.

So, you need to get involved locally; work out what you want, then speak out; join a political party and influence their debate; email your councillors; join a residents association, and help out locally; help local charities, and schools; stand for election yourself.

 

Barriers to entry?

To get elected, you need a lot of people to vote for you. So how do you get people to vote for you?

A good methodology to connect with local people, to find out what people want, and need could be;

1. Knock on doors, and talk to people
2. Produce, distribute, and collate local surveys, and
3. Organise “surgeries” to meet people, ask them where they need help

So what next?

Once you know what people want, or need;

1. Go and help them locally,
2. Campaign on these issues (email your local council to ask for change)
3. Write letters to the press, or other local media, including website franchises like The Best of…, and Streetscene
4. Produce leaflets, and put them through letterboxes

Now that is a lot of hard work, and the current system favours organisations, usually political parties, who have lots of people to spread the workload.

And all of this is in addition to your work as a Councillor, once you are elected.

To find out more about I do as a Councillor, read my blogs dated 12 August 2014, and 23 August 2014.

Local authorities could reduce these barriers to involvement

But what if Local Authorities dismantled the great wall?

Local authorities could reduce these barriers to involvement and facilitate volunteer helpers meeting & helping those in need, and so getting people to know . They could;

• organise local surgeries centrally, free from party political bias, allowing anyone interested to help
• create regular local meetings to discuss issues with Council officers
• prepare leaflets centrally, and use a common delivery, with affordable contribution from candidates
• host effective social media sites like The Best of franchise, Streetlife

This could allow individuals to and residents to meet, talk about the issues affecting them that they need help with, and get practical help, and changes to local government rule to help them

With high barriers to connecting with local people, the “job description”, or emphasis, switches from good hearted, people-focused representatives, to “machievalian” party-politicians.

 

Party Political Tribalism is the enemy of the people, and erodes local democracy

The elephant in the room

In my view, Party Political Tribalism is at the heart of the breakdown of local democracy.

But I’m not alone in thinking that. Carolyn Quinn recently interviewed Andrew Norfolk, from The Times, in the wake of the Rotherham scandal. Listen to what he says.

Excerpt from Radio 4 PM, on Monday 4 February 2015; Carolyn Quinn interviews Andrew Norfolk, from The Times.

So, based on his extensive research, and expose in the Times, Andrew Norfolk points out that one possible cause of the Rotherham scandal is that “traditionally one party…has grown so used to having very little effective opposition, that it’s grown accustomed to doing things its own way…in a state of complete denial, both councillors and senior officers, of the problems they confront and of the inadequacies they’ve exhibited.”

In my opinion, we have to change the system so that Party Political tribalism is eliminated at a local level, or is prevented from creating a culture where abuses can develop, and flourish unhindered. Party Political Tribalism is the enemy of the people, and erodes local democracy.

 

A question of heart?

From my general observation, the manipulative nature of party politics seems to render impotent the good nature of people, made subservient to an authoritative hierarchy, and often “childish & immature” leadership. I say childish and immature, because their behaviour seems to be controlling, and driven by fear and insecurity, rather than a mature, consensual, honest debate.

To use the terminology of Heartsyles©;

• Party politicians seem to be ineffective and driven by Pride (self-promoting) and Fear (self-protecting), but
• People representatives are motivated by Love (helping others) and Humility (personal development).

 

Breaking through the glass ceiling

Heartsyles has been developed by clinical psychologists, and business transformation agents, Mara & Stephen Klemich. It has been designed to transform corporate culture. Big busineses are transforming their culture with Heartstyles© ideas, having recognised that their executives are hitting a glass ceiling.

 

Any correlation with political parties, is purely coincidental

Now I’m not saying that

There is an unintentional, and unfortunate coincidence between the colours used by Heartstyles © in their Indicator, and the colours of certain UK Political parties.

Now I am not saying that the Labour party are a skippy, hippy, commune of lurve; nor that the LibDems are full of furtive fear, though after Nick Clegg’s volte-face on tuition fees, they might be; nor do I imply that Conservative politicians are double minded people, alternating wildly between Pride, and contrite conduct. Any correlation with political party colours, is purely coincidental

 

 

Wouldn’t it be great if our representatives were people oriented?

Breaking through to a gold standard of behaviour

The Heartsytles© Indicator was developed by the Australian couple Dr. Mara Klemich and Stephen Klemich, who have been helping people, and also corporates like Pizza Hut, to help transform lives, and also corporate culture. Individuals can find out more at Heartlife©, and corporates can find out more at Heartstyles© (http://www.heartstyles.com/)

They help people, and organisations, create the gold standard of behaviour and conduct, that will help transform the entire person, whether at work, play, or at home, and therefore their performance at work, or in the Council, or perhaps even in Parliament. We can hope, right?!

 

 

 

Heartstyles…positive, effective attitudes

What’s in your heart?

Heartsytles© go on to set out the chacteristics of positive, effective attitudes of Love (selflessly acting in the interests of others) & Humility (constantly seeking self improvement), and the unhelpful approaches of Fear & Pride.

The qualities of love include Relating, Encouraging, Developing (others), and Compassion.

The characteristics of Humility include being Authentic, Transforming behavior, Reliable conduct, and Achieving much through effective behaviour.

Sadly, the features of Pride are being Sarcastic and negative, Competitive and comparing, Controlling and dominating, and exhibiting Striving and a need to look good.

People who Fear require Approval, are Easily Offended, are often Dependent on others for direction or decisions, and are Avoiding of responsibility, they avoid making decisions or dealing with conflicts positively.

Don’t be put off by the language. Do you see what I am getting at?

 

ask “what can I do for you?”, rather than “what’s in it for me?”

People or party first?

So, you can see why I use the expression “people representative” versus “party politicians”.

“Effective people, drive effective results.” It could be said that party politicians are ineffective people, who do not drive optimal results.

Wouldn’t it be great if our representatives were people oriented, driven by humility and love, people who ask “what can I do for you?”, rather than “what’s in it for me?” – OK, I am paraphrasing President John F Kennedy.

Perhaps then, residents would have faith in politicians, and would see that the system works, and that they do count, they do matter.

 

Let’s aim high, and aspire to greater things.

West Windsor Resident Association sponsored candidates, going for GOLD

To help become more effective for you, I will ask all WWRA sponsored candidates to sign up to Code of Conduct featuring these positive, aspirational, characteristics.

We will publish the Code of Conduct here shortly – tell us what you think.

Let’s aim high, and aspire to greater things, for the common good.

 

 

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Time for a change? What do you think?

Albert Einstein apparently once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Do you agree? Disagree? Is politics broken? Is it high time we did things differently?

Tell me what you think.

If you agree, come and join us help others. Email me wisdomdacosta@hotmail.co.uk

Together, let’s make 2015 a golden year for people. A year Independent of party political tribalism.

 

Accountably yours.

 

Wisdom

Wisdom Da Costa

Councillor, Clewer North

Chairman, West Windsor Residents Association

ARTICLE DATED 14 FEBRUARY 2015

 

Disclaimer

The views of the writer does not necessarily reflect the views of the WWRA, and no liability can be accepted for any damage caused by the contents of this article, or its publication on the WWRA website, or it’s use by others.

 

Local figures

RBWM	Councillors		Population	% diff
Asian	5	9%	4%	5
Casuasian	52	91%	93%	-2
Afro-Carribean	0	0%	2%	-2
	57	100%	99%
Slough BC	Councillors			% diff
Asian	22	52%	39%	13
Casuasian	19	45%	46%	-1
AC	1	2%	7%	-5
	42	100%	92%
Bracknell DC	Councillors			% diff
Asian	0	0%	3%	-3
Casuasian	40	98%	95%	3
AC	1	2%	2%	0
	41	100%	100%
RunnymedeBC	Councillors			% diff
Asian	2	5%	3%	2
Casuasian	40	98%	93%	5
AC	0	0%	1%	-1
	42	102%	97%
LB Hillingdon	Councillors			% diff
Asian	13	20%	25%	-5
Casuasian	49	75%	60%	15
AC	3	5%	7%	-2
	65	100%	92%
LB Hounslow	Councillors			% diff
Asian	26	43%	36%	8
Casuasian	33	55%	51%	4
AC	1	2%	8%	-6
	60	100%	95%