A new legislation draft is going through Parliament to introduce fundamental changes of Electoral Regulations regarding accounts of political organizations. The so called Enforcement Draft establishes a new set of powers on top of the present system of monetary fines and introduces criminal investigations and confiscation of assets of organizations that repeatedly fail to comply. We are all, like it or not, want it or not, part of a legal framework and to deal with a legal framework we need experienced operators able to contend with the said regulations.
The time of hobby politics and voluntarism is long gone. Let me put you in the picture. If you were lying inside a hospital about to have a heart operation, would you like the operation to be carried out by a plumber? I am sure you wouldn’t allow a supermarket attendant to drill your teeth. Very often we fall prey of petty squabbling based on sympathies or antipathies. Very often we believe that we can win elections or even keep the seats that we have won and this merely by repeating slogans without offering concrete solutions for real problems.
Very often I ask myself why somebody stands for election for a seat at a Local Authority without having a clue about how the Local Authority works, about rules, regulations and procedures. People should try and learn before they even consider the possibility of standing for election. Friendships, personal preferences and loyalties cannot replace competence.
I am sure many of you have already heard about ‘brain drain’. This is what happens when an organization fails to value the talents of its peoples by choosing to work on the basis of friendships, personal preferences and loyalties without taking into acc0unt that in order to succeed it fundamentally needs talents. We could pour billions of pounds, but without talents and without proper structures and proper management we would be merely wasting our monies and failing miserably.
The first step towards a solution is a bath of honesty. If we don’t work 24/7 to achieve what we want and we continue blaiming others for our own mistakes, the only possible consequence will be utter failure.
Excellent article.