The genesis of WOTE

Will Of The Electorate (WOTE) founder Peter Dawe - having been instrumental in deploying a number of society changing innovations - thought that with the ever growing list and scale of the problems of the world, he should stop fixing stuff, as his contribution was a drop in the ocean.

Unfortunately, the problems of the world have got so bad, that stepping away has turned out not to be a relief, but an increase in stress due to the feeling of powerlessness.

Things came to a head, in early 2023 when Mrs Dawe also experienced a number of issues due to the failure of our government systems, including “regulators”. She said to Peter in frustration, “Can you do something about this?”.  Peter said “I can try, but it may have significant impact on our life-style.”

Thus he started to muse on how to fix the government of the UK. And to do it on a shoe-string budget and to do it in less than 2 years. (I was already 68 after-all!)

Having stood for local, parliamentary and then as an Independent candidate for the Cambridgeshire’s elected mayor. Peter understands the challenges of the UK’s electoral system. In particular, the party system and how the media that conspires to ignore non-party candidates, make it almost impossible to stand as an independent candidate.

From experience working with various government departments and agencies, Peter is also aware that individual MPs have very little power, even when they are ministers. (This was even worse when the UK was part of the EU, as ministers would blame the EU for their impotence). 

Now the UK is no longer part of the EU, and is without a full written constitution, once a party has a majority in Parliament, it can do anything!  It may have to cede from some international treaties, or at least seek derogations or patience for some actions, but this is again fully in the power of the UK government.

Another significant factor was the widely expressed dissatisfaction with the UK’s political elite. While the Conservatives have effectively alienated the public with many acts of sheer stupidity, nor is there any obvious appetite for a policy-free Labour government, lead by Sir Kier Starmer and Angela Rayner.  The LibDems continue to be a bit player - famous for their local election canvassing prowess, but little else; with no prospect of being any better than the other two. The Greens are also ineffectual, having abandoned their Green crusade for what seems like a socialist agenda identical to the Labour Party. And as for the SNP - which is can still be "the balance of power broker" for the whole UK at Westminster... well, you couldn't make it up, could you?

Most new political parties in the UK have been formed by a group of politicians splitting off from an existing one. These have typically had very short lives. The exception was The Brexit Party, which as a single issue party was able to shift the political agenda, even without ever gaining a single parliamentary seat. (The Reform Party, formed by the same people, has failed to gain significant support, possibly because of their legacy of being seen as part of the disgraced political elite.)

Finally, I looked at the major changes in government in Europe. France and Italy in particular, threw out their legacy parties to elect a new broom. Sadly in each case, the new brooms were “politicians”, identical to the old ones, but with less experience! Replacing politicians with politicians doesn’t work!

Inspiration! Not only design a new political party, but also design a change in how democracy works!

Over various discussions and consultations, we formulated a number of innovations.

Keep the promises for your first government modest, do not get sucked in to political dogma
We ask the electorate what they want the government to do, rather than telling the electorate what the government will do,
Acknowledge that those with an interest in maintaining the status quo, in particular politicians, lawyers, economists and accountants, are the enemy. Even when they say they are in favour of your ideas. (They lie!)
Choose your battleground.
So after a few months, the principle for the new party was refined to:-

Provide effective government that delivers the services that the electorate wants, effectively and efficiently within the resources available.
 

Market Testing

Before one puts serious resources into an activity, it is always best to test market the ideas.  This was done by face-to-face discussions with anyone and everyone one meets. Each of the reasons for doing the new party were tested, and for the most part virtually everyone agreed with the analysis that our political elite were not fit for purpose. They also liked the ideas of having service delivery at the front of the priorities. The radical change, from government telling the electorate to the electorate telling the government, was not taken on so readily. While people liked the idea “in principle”, this change, we think, was unfamiliar, and indeed their experience of “consultation” poisoned by how government has done it in the past.

The other thing was their belief that fixing government could only be done by more money. The idea that the current systems were very inefficient wasn’t a problem, it was the belief that politicians could not change that system.

The market testing also demonstrated the reluctance of nearly everyone to put effort into changing the system, or indeed being part of the system. The level of defeat, apathy, and “too busy” was a surprise. Even the retired declared themselves “too busy”!

We do not underestimate the challenge ahead - but we are confident that the appetite for change has rarely been stronger.