A wave of referendums coming our way?
YES, if Simon Cowell has his way……
In an interview with Newsnight this evening Simon Cowell admitted to giving serious thought to a political X Factor style show. In the interview he talks about picking a topic each show e.g “Should we be in or out of Afganistan and Iraq” ….”Knife crime” … (Capital Punishment???) , talking about it ( a bit vague on detail), a panel of “experts” to comment – and then “the public vote”.
What seems to tickle his fancy is the idea of “the people having their say”…well eventually . Ok what he probably means is telephone voting (a nice little earner for his company and the TV channel broadcasting the show no doubt) but the idea is intriging and will doubtless send waves of fear/excitement reverberating around Westminster. With a Simon Cowell show this would not be “a poll” of 900 people from some pre-selected panel, balanced by blah blah blah – this would be hundreds of thousands, millions possibly, making their views felt. Politicians doorstepped the next-day for their views on their party’s policies in light of the results……oh the chaos….
What sounded optimisitic was his idea that he could run 5 or 6 of these before the next general election (well that might prompt Gordon Brown to pull his finger out at least). But what Simon Cowell wants, Simon Cowell gets (can you really see a cash-strapped ITV turning down ANY Simon Cowell project right now?).
This has a real chance of getting off the ground. If he is serious….Cowell’s reputation would (a) almost certainly ensure that his programme would be snapped up by the lucky channel he talks to because (b) Cowell’s reputation would undoubtedly guarantee substantial viewing figures to at least trialling it. After that it will down to just how good the show actually is - and he is as good as it gets – I cant see it being a turkey myself.
Personally I liked the idea of the “red telephone” - enabling NO10 to call at any time during the show. Kirsty Wark could envisage Brown falling over Mandelson falling over Balls to get to the phone first … I am not so sure… but I can see Mr Hilton and David Cameron (as indeed Tony Blair would have) realising the wonderful opportunites that this might present.
So could this be the new age of democracy?
Could Simon Cowell be the man needed to re-enage the public with politics? Will any of us like the answers the public gives us ? Could he actually achieve what Rupert Murdoch has tried so hard to do for soooooo long (financing loss making enterprises such as Sky News along the way) to influence politics in a significant way. The answer to the last question is yes, he could, and make money out of it. I have no doubt.
So brace yourselves, “Simon Cowell – the KING of Entertainment”, might just be set to be the “Simon Cowell – the most influential person in politics”. As Newsnight says…”The X man cometh”….
December 15th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Sounds more like a new wave of mob rule…
The problem is of course the power politicians and the institutions of the state have over us. Allowing all and sundry to have their say in this manner just encourages the scum to float to the top and impose itself upon us.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Like Tristan, I don’t like the sound of it. I’m all for the public making their voices heard, but a series of pseudo-plebiscites is possibly the worst way it can be done. It would be home to the most blatant demagogy, it would be subject to all sorts of possibilities for rigging, and politicians would feel compelled to act on the basis of a flawed exercise in populism. (And remember, populism and liberalism are genuine political enemies.)
No, the one thing I would change is to get an ordinary member of the public on programmes like Question Time now and again. They’ve done it with schoolkids, so it can’t be hard to do the same with adults. It would encourage real public engagements with political debate, and get a different voice from the usual Westminster/chatterati set.
December 15th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Only one way to see whether it works, and that is to try it. As I understand the X-factor, tho’, the public can vote more than once, which would make it different to political voting!
December 15th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Tim, yes they can vote more than once, and of course organised groups can attempt to mobilise their troops in an attempt to swing the vote.. With sufficient engagement from the public however, it would be extremely difficult for any group to affect the result meaningfully and almost impossible to do without being identified as having done so. There are also technical ways only to allow one vote from one phone though I doubt the economics of the programme would allow for that!
More generally I “hear the fear” about this sort of thing. We might not like some of the results or consequences….But Frankly Westminster has ballsed up democracy so demonstrably badly – and shows no signs of doing anything but tweaking it at the edges – so how can Simon Cowell really do that much worse?
I think in general its better to “get the issue out in the open” than have lots of people seethe about something without a way of expressing themselves. I suspect a debate on immigration for example would have produced a response I did not agree with – but at least it would force the issue onto the agenda whether Westminster likes it or not.
Those parties that disagree with the public vote, would find it difficult not to make a firm stand and explain themselves. Ok its going a bit far to say that Simon Cowell would have stopped the rise of BMP – but in my view it was ignoring the siutation that largely caused people to look elsewhere for answers..
I DONT think QT is the right vehicle – I just dont believe people would watch it. Its a very diffrence beast.
So yes its risky – but I think we need a few risks taken to shake things up in this country.