Who Really Runs Britain?

To answer the question in the title, David Cameron... Or does he? The government seem to be increasingly constrained by different entities most of all the financial markets. So who really does run Britain?



The Press


Media heavy weights, News International have been seen to influence public opinion to a great extent by politicians. This has led leaders of both Labour and the Conservatives to attempt to become very friendly with the heads of their newspapers and their bosses, the Murdoch's. These relationships seem unhealthy as they force politicians in to appeasing these press giants which is detrimental to the democratic process.

I also question the amount of power newspapers have, they can take a person down in the court of public opinion but in terms of which party they support changing the way people vote does not seem to hold water. The Sun famously supported Labour just before their 1997 landslide victory and the Conservatives at the last election. However, The Sun's loyalties switched as a result of the change in public opinion towards the party's not the other way around. Despite all this the press is even less of an issue now then it has ever been, with the problems in the Murdoch empire people are less trusting of the press especially massive corporations. A more plural press will hopefully change the politician obsession with those who write the news.

The Government and the People


This seems like the obvious answer and in some ways it is the correct one. We the people vote for politicians, the ones who get the most votes form the government who then run the country. The government make major decisions such as whether or not to go to war, they draft the budgets which spell out the spending programs for schools and hospitals and they create laws which are in theory there to protect us. However, do they have complete control, are they only influenced by the will of the majority? Firstly, we give our politicians a mandate to carry out their manifesto's but of course this can not contain everything and they are not obliged by law to stick to it completely. So there are some things they will not know what the will of the people is. Also they are constrained by an entity outside of their control, the markets.


The Markets 

The international financial markets are key in the way our economy works. We are currently in a situation in which the markets can control whether we are in a recession or growing and this is down to the way our economy is set up. The capitalist system that has been introduced across the world has the markets at its centre, laissez faire is the mantra. This means the government has very little influence on the economy, which is the most important mechanism of a country. The economy effects everything! The economy is in the hands of unelected, unaccountable traders, businessmen and bankers this is not democratic.

The government also lives in fear of the markets, the cuts that countries are having to make go against everything economics tells us to do. But the markets want it so the markets get it. If we put money in to the economy and helped businesses start up and kept people in their jobs a cycle of prosperity would ensue. This, however, is far to left wing for the die hard capitalists that run the markets and if they don't like it and turn against us then people get scared, everyone sells and eventually we're back in bust.

Change

This global crisis has shown me one thing, we need change. We have moved in to a world in which politicians are helpless, the will of the people is helpless and the markets rule the world. This, to me, is wrong and we have to do something to put it right.