Friday 2 May 2008

Leadership and Interactive Democracy


In the previous post I mentioned that Paddy Ashdown had called into question the ability of the electorate to make the 'right' choice. My view is that it is the role of leaders to explain what the 'right' choice is.

On the "Question Time" programme Paddy suggested that if it was put to the electorate we may well see the return of hanging, for example.

A leader may say "Imagine your DNA was found at a crime scene, you don't have an alibi, but someone matching your description was seen leaving the crime scene. You knew the victim, in fact you'd argued with him recently. You are about to be hung... only you know you are innocent.
"Imagine it wasn't you but your daughter with the noose around her neck!"

The Internet generation may even view a hanging on You Tube (it looks/feels like murder to me). They may look up and view Michael Portillo's programme about humane killing (a BBC programme I think) and find statistics on miscarriages of justice. Maybe TV companies would show their back catalogue of such films in the weeks leading up to a vote on the subject. And air time would be given to Paddy and his opposition politicians.

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