This is the logical outcome of liberalism IMO.
This is the logical outcome of two things.
1. Their silly campaign finance rules. British campaign finance laws are literally the worst in the Western world, only after the United States. It’s just embarassing.
2. Their First-Past-The-Post voting system. It is a voting system that is designed to create a party duopoly on political power.
Show me the incentives of any political system. I will show you the outcome.
Look the recent British elections. Keir Starmer won 65% of seats in Parliament with only 35% of votes. It’s his country now. He can do whatever he wants for 5 years. Greens, SNP or Reform received millions upon millions of votes. They get very few seats. This is not normal.
Under the Danish voting system, here is what would happen in Britain.
The Reform Party would tell Starmer : “You don’t have a majority. We can allow you to form a government. But in exchange, we want to reduce immigration. And we want a law banning cousin marriage. Do we have a deal ?”
The Green Party would tell Starmer : “You don’t have a majority. We can allow you to form a government. But in exchange, we want to nationalize water companies and a law banning gambling ads. Do we have a deal?”
I don’t think either of those two things would have any bearing on workplace happiness though.
I aint a fan of a two-party system - I’ll take the slow, stable Danish way any day.
But how is that directly related to disengaged workers?
Seems to track pretty directly to me. Political system that results in less rights and less voice for the people equals less engagement. I mean that’s one to one almost. Particularly when that same system also favors corporations to an absurd degree that exploit workers the breaking point.
This is not surprising at all.
I was recently reading an article in the French newspaper Le Monde.
In Britain, corporations are increasingly using a special system called zero-hour contracts.
These contracts are designed to offer maximum flexibility for business owners, in order to reduce his risks. The employee is guaranteed nothing and must always be available.
« They send my hours on Sunday, but nothing is sure. Sometimes, they cancel the same day » says Yana Petticrew, a young Glasgow Scottish worker who has been on zero-hour contracts for nearly 10 years. « Life is hard. I can’t even plan a meeting with my friends next week, because my boss could call me at any time » Yana says. She can’t refuse, or her boss will get rid of her.
Labor unions say workers on zero hour contracts earn on average less than those who are not. In 2010, 168 000 british workers were on zero hour contracts. In 2024, 1.1 million british workers were on zero hour contracts.
Here is another things that stuns me. I learned that in Britain, employees have no boardroom representation. In France, all companies publically listed on the stock market are legally required to have union representatives on the board of directors.
For instance LVMH :
https://www.lvmh.com/en/our-group/governance
Why can’t british employee have board representatives?!
The UK system is rotten. Brits need to fight for change. They deserve so much better.
Also the French need to do some more striking, when you look at the board of for example adidas:
Sounds about right
