An Ice-Pick In The Head - Mallorca And Coalition Politics

At the risk of over-doing the political angle, when it appears that there is a collective failure to see the point, I feel I have to say something. It's this coalition politics deal, the one that is said to blight Mallorcan politics. I'll set to one side the corruption aspect, because it's irrelevant in this context - as I said the other day. The argument goes, in Mallorca, that the diversity of political parties that constitute governments is bound to lead to failure. The current regional government administration comprises three elements - the PSOE socialists (the coalition leaders and providers of the president), the left-wing Bloc (itself a mish-mash of minor parties) and the centre-right Unió Mallorquina, the ones who have caused the problems because of the corruption cases and not because of ... in-fighting.

It is this, in-fighting, which goes to the heart of the anti-coalition argument, and was one expounded in the weekly yes-no interlude in "The Bulletin" yesterday. The point of this debate was that both sides are missing the point, as do others who constantly harp on about the propensity for in-fighting caused by coalition. Let's get it clear. There is in-fighting, there is bound to be in-fighting. It may be exacerbated by having a collection of competing political ideologies defined along separate party lines, but coalitions are not the only forms of government which give rise to in-fighting. All forms of government do. Politics, by nature, is about in-fighting. Politics is the collision of ego and power-grabbing and therefore in-fighting.

Simple-majority governments are no less immune. Go ask John Major about the "bastards" or Michael Portillo and his rapidly created office when Major looked to be on the point of going. Ask the Tories about Europe. Ask Gordon Brown or Tony Blair about each other. All in-fighting. Blair attempted to impose discipline on New Labour and succeeded for a while, but gave rise to the obscenity of the set pieces at PMQs and the fawning of the Blair Babes; it was not democratic, but a form of brainwashed groupthink. Go back a bit further to Kinnock and his obscenity - of letters of redundancy being sent out by taxi, all to the background of Derek Hatton shouting his mouth off, Eric Heffer walking out and the Militant tendency being dispatched into oblivion.

Political parties are not uniform. The Conservative Party has long been known for its "broad church". Labour may have lost some of its more extreme elements, but is still a thing of left and right. In-fighting cannot be completely controlled out, whatever style of government obtains. Even totalitarian regimes can't manage it. Go ask, were you able to, Leon Trotsky. What did he get for his troubles? An ice-pick in the head. At least politics is a bit less violent these days; well, in the "civilised" world at any rate. Essentially, though, any political party exists as an artifice; one of a superficially shared value but one, nevertheless, exploited by its individual members for the gain of power and prestige. So also does a coalition or any form of government.

Democracies create imperfect forms of government. Yet there is no "perfect" form of government, just as there is no "perfect" electoral system. Coalition works reasonably well where the philosophy of consensus exists, such as in Germany. Coalition or majority, it is the art of compromise that is often its saviour. And compromise can only come from a mature and stable political mindset, that of the individual politician. It is this, the - if you like - psychological and philosophical capability to set aside ideologies in pursuit of the greater good that allows whatever form of government to function.

A more pertinent question, in the Mallorcan and Balearics context, is whether there exists sufficient maturity, on behalf of politicians from a multiplicity of parties, small and large, to allow for government to function effectively. It is not just personal maturity but also systemic maturity; democracy is still a relatively recent phenomenon. One might argue that 30 years is long enough. Perhaps so, or perhaps not. Perhaps they are still feeling their way towards a more effective management of the political system. Whatever the case, it is wrong to blame the style of government and therefore Mallorcan politics as a whole, or to use the convenient but largely misunderstood accusation of in-fighting as a reason for somehow dismantling the system. Let them get on with it. They'll get there in the end. Maybe.


QUIZ
Today's title - which group sang about Trotsky and an ice-pick? Very easy.

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