More transparency needed in politics - ​Ewan Aitken

We urgently need to bring back integrity, transparency and honesty in our political decision making, says Ewan AitkenWe urgently need to bring back integrity, transparency and honesty in our political decision making, says Ewan Aitken
We urgently need to bring back integrity, transparency and honesty in our political decision making, says Ewan Aitken
Deadlines are a necessary tool in the world of columnists. There is nothing like a deadline bearing down on you to get creative with your commentary about emerging current events.

That is, except on weeks like this when between my deadline and the column being published there is a seismic current event which will impact every one of us, the outcome of which we cannot know for certain. I am of course talking about the UK General Election which - in “columnist time” - is happening in two days but in readers’ time will have happened yesterday! I am good but time travel is beyond even me!

Unless every pollster is so bad at their job that they should resign now, you will have woken up to a change of government at Westminster, a change we have needed for some time. Westminster politics has been disastrous for several years and we desperately need a change. The question this morning will be however, have we got the right group of people for the job and will it bring the longer term change we really need?

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In the last six weeks I have been out canvassing for my party. Feedback from voters showed agreement across supporters of all parties that we need change. Even the most die-hard supporters of the government of the last 14 years were not able to defend their record.

Firstly, we urgently need to bring back integrity, transparency and honesty in our political decision making. The strongest message I heard from supporters across parties was that the trust between voters and those who were asking for their votes had broken down. It is one of the reasons for the rise of populism in politics peddled by people who offer deceptively easy answers to complex problems.

It is imperative that we build back that trust though connection, the sharing of common values, the willingness to listen to those with real life experience and the compassion and wisdom to be able to disagree respectfully and treat everyone with dignity.

It’s a tough gig being a politician. I am not suggesting we should feel sorry for them. They put themselves up for election and we have every right to hold them to account. But holding them to account is different from demanding they agree with us. What we can ask, is that they are honest about why they have reached the decisions they reach. And when it’s different to what we might have wanted, seek to discuss without condemnation.

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My own experience of being elected taught me that people mostly wanted to understand who is making the decisions, why them, whose opinions are being taken into account and why they came to that conclusion. Transparency is the bedrock of trust. If there is one thing our new UK government could do to bring about big change without spending lots of money, it is to quickly embed a culture of transparency around all their decision making. There are tough times ahead thanks to the chaos of the last 14 years. Prioritising trust building based on transparency could go a long way to helping us ride out the chaos and into better times.

Ewan Aitken is CEO of Cyrenians

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