Once upon a time, a long long time ago, my partner in crime and I hit upon the idea of a new kind of political party. We called it ‘The Children’s Party’. A great name for a party that did not seek power, but did seek to create a world we could be proud to hand on to our children. Our idea was that it would become an almighty cattle prod for whichever party was in government, a cross between a traditional political party and a new social movement.
One of these days I’m going to find a way of doing something with this idea. In the meantime, here’s an extract from our first ever document:
With every passing year we are running up a debt that our children can’t afford. Through our effect on the environment, our relationships with much of the world, our reliance on debt and our political short-termism, we are leaving problems to be solved by those who follow us.
Politics has become a short-term cycle, with each new government promising a transformation that it can’t deliver, and a constant stream of initiatives that are rarely given time to prove themselves before the wheel is reinvented — or at least spun in a different direction. This is not anyone’s fault, but it’s a problem for all of us, as it leads to ever more quick fix solutions, more concerned with the judgement of headlines than of history.
The Children’s Party is an opportunity to think in the long term, to develop policies that will benefit our children, not ourselves. After all, we spend much of our lives working or saving money on their behalf; why should we not do the same with our political beliefs?
We proposed the idea of a ‘wikifesto’, which I like too. Some of our first principles that we wanted to open out for debate included:
1. Prevention is better than cure.
2. Our contribution to society should not be measured by our tax return alone.
3. We should pay the real cost of what we use.
4. Life shouldn’t be more expensive if you’re poor.
5. People should be free to build their own lives; the state’s job is to support them in doing so.
6. The state should help people plan for their future.
7. Everyone must participate in democracy, and democracy must represent everyone
8. Public space is where we connect with one another, and stands for more than commercial interests
9. Parents have a legal duty to their children
10. National pride comes from our relationship with others, not our relationship with ourselves
What a crying shame that we never pulled the funding off to get this one going. Another time, another time.
