An immediate disadvantage of representative democracy in Britain arises from the fixed term parliament act of 2011, and the potential fifth year of leadership for the party in power. While it may be argued that a constant four year cycle of elections would simply induce a frantic undoing and re-passing of acts and establishments, even with a political state as adversarial as britain’s, truly beneficial institutions and laws are not revoked, at least not without huge public backlash (take the setting up of Labour’s NHS in 1948 as an obvious example). This extra year in leadership allows a party with or without primarily environmental concerns to hold on to power for a year longer, and diminishes yet more the voice of the electorate.
The battle against climate change has barely begun, and can not begin until huge steps towards consensus have been taken. As seen in the latest party manifestos, even separate parties, using exactly the same scientific advice, are promising opposing goals towards a sustainable future. While disagreement between political individuals and parties is a long-running joke, if those in power can not agree on a realistic and positive end goal towards tackling climate change, or together find a mutual state of satisfaction, the first steps can not be taken. The numbers of trees to be planted, for example, seem to be numbers pulled from nowhere. Labour announced a goal of 2 billion trees by 2040, while the tories pledged 30 million a year until 2024. These outlandishly contradicting promises display the almost maniacal desire these leading parties have to oppose one another at all costs. Everyone has realised that if we are to slow down the onset of climate change (for the science suggests we are too late now to entirely prevent it), party politics needs to be shifted aside to make way for these ever more imminently life threatening issues.
excellent points