How many politicians?

Have you ever wondered how many politicians take decisions about the way you lead your life? Well, I recently worked it out and I am about to shock you - so I suggest you make sure you are sitting down.

If you add up all the MEPs, the MPs, the Lords and all the local politicians it means that every single person who lives in South Somerset is governed by approximately 2,300 politicians. I have not yet added in those appointed by politicians to quangoes such as the Fire Authority, the Police, the PCT etc.

But you only elect your one MP, a few MEP's and your Councillors, you might say? Yes, but the problem is that decisions that affect your life are taken by politicians over which your MPs and Councillors have no influence. Those decisions are taken collectively, by politicians as remote as Brussels or Westminster. In fact, if you think about it, an MEP from Spain has more of a say about where the fish you eat comes from than either your MP, your Council or even the current Government. The level of tax you pay is something over which your Lib Dem MP has virtually no control and to make it worse, the centralising nature of this Government means that often local Councillors only set council tax to offset how much the Government has cut their grant.

So what do we do about this? Well, in my view the time has come to go on a politician diet. We can do this two ways. We can either knock out a few layers of Councillors (as the County Council wanted to do last year when it tried to abolish the District Council), or you can, like me, believe that decisions about laws and taxes should be taken as close as possible to the people who are affected by them. This means strengthening local government and getting central and European Government off our backs.

I want to take back powers from Europe and slim down the number of MPs at Westminster. People argue that if you slim down the number of MPs then it will make them more remote from people who have problems they want solved. In my view giving Councillors more of a role in supporting local people would be a good thing, not least because if they are given more powers then often it will be local councils who are responsible for matters that affect the daily lives of local people.

Somerset would be an even better place to live if the people of Somerset had more control over their lives – let us hope we get a Government that can deliver this for us. But this is also why it is important that when we get a vote for the County Council and European Parliament – as we do this June – then we make sure we all go out to vote.