Skip to main content

Cleaning up politics

In an attempt to clean up up the political mess that has engulfed all parties, David Cameron is to open up the Conservative Party's list of candidates to anyone who wants to join.

This is a long overdue move that will help to modernise the Conservative Party, get rid of the so-called 'party grandees' who expected a seat for life, and I hope other parties will follow suit.

Politics should be about public service, not just about getting your expected due reward because you have been a member of a political party since you were three years old.

Ironically, this process of open selection in politics could have started at the creation of the National Assembly for Wales when Kevin Morgan, Chairman of the Yes campaign, asked for the "brightest and the best" to be attracted to the new devolved body.

He again expressed his frustration that talented people had not been able to gain nominations for winnable seats because they were not “party insiders”.

"Speaking at a conference to mark the forthcoming 10th anniversary of devolution Professor Morgan, who chaired the Yes campaign, said he interviewed skilled men and women from across “health, education, the arts, the professions” on behalf of the Labour party but they were rejected. “That for me is the reason for the biggest disappointment of all, namely the low calibre of AMs,” he added."

Unfortunately, the party machines got their way and it didn't happen and those who had been loyal party servants got the pick of the best seats. By and large, nothing has much has changed since and the same process continues regardless.

Hopefully, this move by Cameron will herald a new revolution in politics, at both an Assembly and Westminster level, a revolution that will bring us the politicians we need and deserve to get this nation out of the mess it is in.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

THE IMPORTANCE OF FRANCHISING

When we talk about start-ups and entrepreneurship, rarely do we discuss the potential of franchising not only as a way of establishing new ventures in the economy but also as a method of growing existing businesses. According to the British Franchising Association, franchising is the granting of a licence by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchisee to own and operate their own business under the brand, systems and proven business model of the franchisor. The franchisee also receives initial training and ongoing support, comprising all the elements necessary to establish a previously untrained person in the business. This enables individuals to start their own businesses without having to develop their own ideas and utilising an existing brand and established market. Of course, whilst each franchise business is owned and operated by the franchisee, the franchisor controls the quality and standards of the way in which the business is

THE MANUFACTURING STRATEGY FOR WALES

Last night, I received the following comment on the previous post relating to a piece I had written back in early 2007 about the state of the manufacturing sector in Wales. "Dylan, you seem to be ignoring the fact that manufacturers in Wales have written the manufacturing strategy. Small and large manufacturers, all represented at the Manufacturing forum, have co-written this strategy. WAG has recently supported this strategy and have funded a co-ordinator with resources. Manufactures are happy with this progress as they are following the strategy they wanted. I know that the Conservatives have attacked the strategy as they seem to think that WAG wrote the strategy. They couldn't be more wrong. The Manufacturing Strategy was written by manufacturers, for manufacturers and is supported by WAG. If you don't agree with this, then I can invite you to the next Manufacturing Forum and you can explain to the manufacturers how their strategy is wrong....I appreciate that there is

INTRAPRENEURSHIP

Whilst we often consider entrepreneurship to be associated predominantly with new start-ups, larger firms - in order to compete effectively in fast-changing global markets - are adopting more innovative and enterprising approaches to management within their organisations. One of these approaches is the development of entrepreneurship within a corporate environment (or intrapreneurship). Research has shown that intrapreneurship is not easy, and there are considerable differences between an intrapreneurial and a traditional corporate culture, with the latter having an emphasis on a culture and reward system that tends to favour caution in decision-making. For example, large businesses rarely operate on a "gut-feeling" for the market-place, as many entrepreneurs do. Instead, large amounts of data are gathered before any major business decision is made, not only for use in rational business decisions, but also for use as justification if the decision does not produce optimu