I was recently inspired by a recent article by u/wg_1605 (https://www.reddit.com/r/MHOCPress/comments/opx5o9/opinion_the_state_of_the_labour_party_and_why_i/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) which voiced their concerns over their time in the Labour Party and the issue of lack of transparency. However, I think the issue here is one that goes deeper than they touched upon. The issue really is the stifling of fresh voices in politics as fresh and new voices are often told to stay in their lane or to not do certain things because "its not the done thing".

We have heard establishment voices recently trying to quell different voices from speaking out. We saw voices in Northern Ireland denounce criticism of Ministers failing to attend Executive Questions met with a line of its wrong because it hasn't been done "in recent memory". Whilst this was what turned out to be a controversial article, its premise was to call upon Ministers to do their job. But the response to it was a clear establishment attempt to force people to conform to certain ways of doing things. Given how there are often calls for greater transparency, these are just as much responded to with calls for backroom dealings to continue.

Then recently, we saw Solidarity whip against a bill that would have created a path to residency for International Students on the basis that the manner in which it was done was not how they wanted it to be done. This was a choice where they and The Independent Group decided that their own methods were more important than Parliamentary Sovereignty. They shot down an attempt to improve the lives of people because they weren't the ones getting the credit for it. Their belittling of fresh voices has a stranglehold on politics, and it is a stranglehold I call upon people to break. 

The system works when fresh voices are forced to conform because establishment voices are scared of change. They are scared of the small guy who has ideas, because those very ideas scare them and could upset their position. Elites will control the system as they built it, they will hold onto their power because they dictate where power is held. They will not hold onto power because it is right, but because they demand the playing field is built for them and only them. 

Many will come out and say how they are proof that the system allows for fresh voices to exist, but is it because they had their voice heard, or is it because they were forced to conform themselves. Its the classic boarding school scenario where the youngsters are bullied by prefects and say its wrong, until they become the prefects and continue the bullying themselves. 

It is time for Goliath to remember when they were David, and then see when David topples Goliath instead of replacing him.