51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Clegg outlines changes in the way the Coalition will goven: Clegg speech; - I now want to turn to the specific issue of short-termism in politics and government. I have already argued that myopia is not a problem restricted to SW1. But it is also clear that politics is often poisoned by short-termism. This is, after all, a profession in which a week is said to be a long time. Politicians stand accused of being incapable of thinking beyond the next election, the next parliamentary session, or even the next 24-hour news cycle. Sometimes the accusations ring true. Again, these are not entirely new problems. The Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is reported to have said: ‘A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman thinks of the next generation.’ Now, I don’t think we should be under any illusions about the fact that Disraeli was as keen to be re-elected as any of his predecessors or successors! But his point nonetheless stands. And I think there is some evidence that politics has become more afflicted with short-termism in the recent past. In part, this is because communication, both international and national, becomes faster by the year. The sheer scale and velocity of the news media has undoubtedly altered the way politics is conducted. When you read, today, the diaries of Winston Churchill or William Gladstone, spending weeks travelling to conduct diplomatic missions, or on preparing a single speech to parliament, it is like entering a different world. Nobody wants to turn back the clock, of course. But given the pressures of modern politics and government, we do need to work very much harder to keep our sights on the long-term consequences of our decisions. This is especially true, given that many of the problems we face have a longer-term dimension: climate change, pensions and social care, and international economic development are just some of the more obvious examples. Our horizons have shortened as the timescales...