All Politics is Local

Posted on January 14, 2010 at 07:24 PM

Political decisions however high brow and noble they might seem ultimately matter because they affect people and people live their lives out locally. There is no real separation between national and local issues because they intertwine, overlap or arise from or give rise to. But we still get the debate about the need to stop us national politicians from talking about local issues.

During our recent mini ice age what the voters wanted to know was would such and such a path be cleared of ice, when would a particular road be gritted, and when would the tap water be back.  These matters were affected by the policies and delivery of services by both national and local government.  Resolving such problems was not just important for local communities but to keep our economy moving too. Councils receive much of their funds from national government, unlike the weather Councils are confined within their town,city or county boundaries, and they have no powers over the gardai, the army, the HSE and other relevant agencies. Of course national Government needed to play a role in addressing problems we faced from the snow and ice, and last November, the rain. The lesson from these weather events is that the Government needs to step in relation to its role sooner rather than later.

There have been good discussions about the issue of the overlap of local and national politics on the political website Irish Election.  The latest discussion initiated by Fianna Fail 2009 local election candidate James Lawless considers whether the British system is less parochial than ours because of its single seat constituencies and first past the post voting. His blog post is 'All Politics is local (but some are more local than others)'. However as I pointed out during the online debate British MPs are just as much, if not more focused, on local issues as we TDs are. I drew attention to the website of David Milliband, British Foreign Minister, and the community newsletters he archives on the website.

David is the MP for South Shields. If anyone thinks David Milliband is the type of politician that focuses on National Politics to get elected have a look through his website and think again. Who is he rooting for on his home page? Non other than South Shields born and bred Joe McElderry winner of X Factor. The newsletters he archives on the site - All about working for South Shields. So MPs don't do clientelism? This is what David has to say about that on his website: "In addition to the duties, I perform in South Shields, I also take up literally thousands of individual cases each year ranging from school admissions to broken paving stones.Please do not hesitate to contact me if you think I can help you". The activities he tells his constituents about in one of the many Community Newsletters he archives on his website include meeting a local resident, a walkabout with a councillor colleague to discuss plans for a local town centre, and being on the beat with the Police in Biddick Hall.

I know from reading about other MPs that their weekends are spent doing surgeries, their version of our constituency clinics, and in fact with only one seat for grabs in British constituencies, and many who would be candidates, this makes MPs work even harder to prove their credentials as local grafters.

Professor Michael Gallagher, of the Department of Political Science, Trinity College, in  a recent article rubbished the myth that MPs do less consituency work than TDs.  He pointed out that "it’s a norm that MPs have a heavy constituency workload, and this is usually their most important role — ahead of anything to do with parliamentary committees and legislation." He went on to argue we should embrace this aspect of a TD's role and reform how the Dail does its business so as to enhance it. I would add to what Professor Gallagher has to say that we make better legislators because of our local grounding and empathy with our constituents gained from our constituency work.

Tip O'Neill was right. All politics is local and that is not a bad thing.

References:
www.irishelection.com
www.davidmilliband.info
‘Give TDs more local work’ Professor Michael Gallagher, The Sunday Times 28 June 2009

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