Remind me, just what is the point of our political class?

Regular readers will know that I am not a big fan of the political mainstream. In fact, one of the reasons why I think our country is heading to hell in a handcart is because our leaders fail to offer anything other than more of the same, with mild, peripheral, cosmetic changes. But I think it is important to understand why we are in this situation, and why it has come to pass that blandness is a bonus for political leaders.

As far as I can see the answer is twofold. First of all, our leaders have ceded so much power away to the EU that it is next to impossible for them to promise to do anything meaningful, since the EU actually has the lion’s share of power in relation to the running of this country. That isn’t necessarily to say that the EU shouldn’t have that power (although regular readers will again know my position on the EU), but rather an acknowledgement that any UK politician claiming to want to do anything radical is basically lying unless they are willing to address the imbalance of power between the UK and the EU first.

The second limitation on politicians seems to be the media response to anything that is not entirely mainstream. As soon as a party leader offers a radical proposal, they are in danger of being shot down by the media as some sort of dangerous extremist. The media seems to be inherently conservative, meaning it is far more rewarding for a politician to adhere to the status quo.

The upshot is that we have a political class that is nothing more than a useless self-perpetuating oligarchy. If you’ve ever stopped to wonder just what the point of our politicians is, then you’ve been close to the truth, since realistically they have ceased to have any point whatsoever. We no longer need intelligence or ideological commitment from our politicians. The sole criteria they need to have is a desire to beat the opposition – exactly the same mentality that you might expect from a seven year old determined to win in the sack race on a school sports day. We don’t so much have politics in this country anymore than a marginally more cerebral version of The X Factor with a vote every five years rather than every week that masquerades as politics.

It is the fault of the political class, of course. Because whilst the media and the EU might constrain them, both of those are things that can be dealt with by politicians. The EU is a human construct; it may be difficult and expensive to reform or even leave the EU, but it can still be done. It may be difficult to make a case for radical change to the media, but again it can be done. It is a question of ambition and scope of ideological views. The only ambition our political class is to get power for themselves, and keep it.

What is the point of our political class? An entertainment, a distraction. We can despair of Gordon, mock Nick and tut at David, and all the time not recognise that our political class is utterly pointless. Because the tedious ongoing drama that calls itself British politics is not politics in any meaningful sense of the word. And that won’t change unless we fundamentally change the people in the political class of this country.