On Closed Doors
There’s been a lot of talk from politicians and others in the media about the injustice and undemocratic nature of negotiations on the future of the government taking place ‘behind closed doors’. I confess I’ve heard no such displeasure from anyone in person, though I have spent a significant part of my time since Thursday sitting in front of computers and televisions (and working, of course).
This train of thought seems to imply that this situation is somehow in contrast to the usual arrangement. An arrangement where negotiations don’t take place behind closed doors because there are no negotiations to make. I fail to see, however, how the current situation is any different to the setting of government policy within a party or, if it is, how these closed door decisions are somehow less democratic than those that take place within a party before or after a general election. In this case, at least, the differing policies have some popular mandate, or lack thereof, behind them, and judgements can be made on their relative popularities as well as their practicality.
These inter-party negotiations, and the typical intra-party ones, though their broad structures may be thrashed out ‘behind closed doors’ are not somehow undemocratic; if they want to be acted on they will still have to be presented to Parliament, debated, amended, and voted on. Unless, of course, there’s a strong majority and bills get pushed through with little or no debate. But that’s just business as usual, there’s nothing new in that.