BOOK REVIEW: THE PLAN

The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain by D. Carswell and D. Hannan

Daniel Hannan MEP shot to YouTube fame in March with his “The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government” speech in the European Parliament.



It is unusual for a political speech (especially one by an MEP) to top the YouTube ratings so I decided to read Hannan’s book and see what his agenda is.

Hannan is a Tory MEP and Carswell a Tory MP so it is unlikely that those of the left are going to enjoy reading this manifesto, especially when it comes to the sections on the NHS and education. However, there is much here that people of all political persuasions should find stimulating.

The furore that has erupted over MP’s expenses the past couple of days gave an interesting backdrop against which to read this book. Appropriately, the authors start their argument with a section headed, “Why everyone hates politicians.” Carswell and Hannan locate this disdain not in the abuse of power by our representatives, but rather in the fact that politicians have too little power – that the power they should have has been ceded to unaccountable quangos. The reason, they argue, that we are so hostile to politicians is because we see them as people who do nothing. So of course we are angry when they are redecorating their boyfriend’s house or watching porn at our expense.

Turnout at local elections since 1996 has averaged 35.4 per cent. Participation at general elections… is also plummeting… Small wonder that fewer and fewer people bother to vote. It’s not that they are apathetic. It’s that they can see that their MP’s and councillors have less impact on them than have the Learning and Skills Council, the Food Standards Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, the Financial Services Authority, the Equality Commission, the Child Support Agency and a thousand other quangos stretching up to the European Commission… The British politician is no longer able to discharge his primary function. He cannot effect meaningful change in his constituents’ lives. He has therefore ceased to be a vessel for popular will. No longer an agent of change, he has become a parasite.

The twelve month plan Carswell and Hannan propose to resolve this malaise includes legislation to:

• Clean up Westminster
• Devolve power to the lowest practicable level
• Make public services work for the people who use them
• Bring foreign and domestic policy back in line with public opinion
• Replace the quango state with genuine democracy
• Refresh our political system through localism and the use of referendums

I find the case for dispersing and localising power a compelling one. I would like to be able to vote for a local sheriff, with control of policing. I would like there to be the potential for citizen sponsored referendums. I would like my local councillors to be given some real authority. And I think regardless of whether one is of the left or the right any serious democrat should want those kind of things. There has got to be something wrong with our centralised system when fewer than half of those sitting GCSE’s in English and Maths gain grades higher than D; and where we are spending £140 billion each year on social security benefits and tax credits.

The NHS and education are such sacred cows to so many people that this book might well be thrown against the wall in disgust before it is half-way through, but I imagine the section that will cause the most spluttering is that on an independent Britain. Carswell & Hannan’s claim is:

European integration is a technocratic and elitist project. We make this observation in no carping spirit: that is what it is meant to be. Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and the other fathers of the European Communities had a profound distrust of untrammelled democracy which, in their eyes, had led to fascism and war. That is why they deliberately vested supreme power in an unelected European Commission – a body intended explicitly to be immune to public opinion. Complaining that the EU is undemocratic is like complaining that a cow is bovine, or a butterfly flighty: it is designed that way.

The authors’ proposed solution to this is withdrawal from the EU and a renegotiated relationship with Europe, along the lines of the European Free Trade Area arrangements enjoyed by Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Norway and Iceland – countries with a GDP 214 per cent of that in the EU. While 84 per cent of national legislation in EU member states derives from Brussels it is not possible, say Carswell & Hannan, to ensure that:

• Decisions are taken as closely as possible to the people they affect
• Decision-makers are directly accountable
• Citizens are free from state coercion

Both Carswell & Hannan’s analysis of the problems facing our political system and their plan to resolve them will generate heated debate. And that is good! Whatever your political persuasion I would recommend reading this book, and arguing about it with other people. Our democracy needs some good arguments.