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The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Should we choose our leaders at random?

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’re not on a great run of political leaders at the moment – is the problem how we pick them? And what if we simply… didn’t? Rather than choosing between a bunch of self-serving, pound-crashing Westminster drones – could democratic lotteries be the answer? Brett Hennig, author of The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy and director of the Sortition Foundation discusses how we pick our representatives, and how we could change it, with Jacob Jarvis. “Politicians often come from a subset of people who aren't best placed to make laws.” “People will only participate in politics if they feel represented.” “The House of Lords is a dinosaur and ripe to be replaced.” Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Assistant producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved

0:05.5

photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.

0:11.8

Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?

0:13.0

I loved going to college.

0:14.0

It's good you can retrain and do something.

0:16.0

Yeah, yeah.

0:17.0

Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.

0:22.0

Phoenix Group is the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business.

0:28.0

Search Phoenix Group living longer.

0:30.0

Pets brings so much joy.

0:32.0

From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa

0:36.7

so give a little love back with dental life from Purina a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so

0:55.3

look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker I'm Jacob Jarvis.

1:11.5

High hopes were once formed of democracy, but democracy means simply the bludgining

1:16.2

of the people, by the people, for the people, it has been found out. Oscar Wilde wrote that in 1891. I'd say that's a pretty stark

1:26.7

interpretation of where we found ourselves but I also think there may be plenty of people who agree on the vibe of that quotation somewhat,

1:36.8

even more than a century later. Here in the UK, it's fair to say we're not on a great run when it comes to choosing our leaders.

1:45.8

Not that we've had much chance to pick them for ourselves of late.

1:49.3

The last general election gave us Johnson, then the Tory membership foisted Liz trust upon us, and now there

1:54.0

Sunak, who was effectively chosen by Tory MPs alone. So might it be better if just nobody chose

2:00.5

our politicians? If those decisions were made for us, not by some anointed

2:05.4

figurehead or through positions bestowed by a higher power, but by a system that was somehow

...

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