Nothing but politics
by John Craig
It seems to have been a good week for the 'independents'. Sir John Stevens exploited his new-found independence with a helpful terror warning and the saga of Margaret's shoulder rumbles on. Perhaps most importantly, Maria Hutchings has shocked few by appearing on a Conservative platform, backing their stance on SEN. First health now education, what increasingly seems like a Tory strategy is reminiscent of America's Swift Veteran's for Truth, whose connections to Republican strategists were equally a point of contention (and whose destruction of Kerry must give Howard hope).
There seems to be a paradox here; the more we seek to root out our deference to elected politicians, the stronger the deference we feel to those public figures who are not elected. While citizens' entry into this 'public' has huge potential, we need to learn how their entry can strengthen politics rather than short-circuit it. Here, to my surprise, we may be able to learn from scientists. The point of See Through Science was that public arguments about science are nothing but science. The same is true of politics, and we need to learn to read them and regulate them in similar ways.