This election was a masterclass in dodging blame – we need to tear up the political rulebook

The left is currently trying to tear itself apart figuring out what the hell happened in the election. Its hallmark tribalism has divided itself along the lines of Brexit, policy and Jeremy Corbyn. About the only thing they can agree on is that something went massively wrong. In that, they’re all incorrect. This is politics as usual.

This is the system we’ve built working as it was designed.

Our politics isn’t fractured, its fractal; an infinitely recurring pattern of awfulness occurring at increasingly intimate stages. Society is problematic, our democracy is ill-functioning, our political parties have been compromised, our MPs are opportunistic and base, our leader’s interactions have been untruthful, unjust and let’s not let anyone off the hook here, unapologetic. It’s a Mandelbrot set of immorality.

What’s sinister is that this system of governing is too huge to comprehend. The idea that “society is doomed” is too large and undefined, while something like an accusation of antisemitism is too nuanced. It’s like trying to comprehend the vastness of the universe and the flea at the same time. It’s impossible to see everything moving at once.

This has allowed politicians to lower the bar. Throughout this election, seemingly every day, stories broke revealing some horrible side to power merchants that should have immediately been barred from office, but were instead rewarded. The moral integrity of our political system won’t die from a thousand cuts. It functions at 999 cuts and countless calloused scars of intersections past.

But who is responsible? Even if politicians aren’t benefiting from the system, they aren’t being properly held to account. They should know better. But then again, so should we. We need to know what we want from politicians in the first place.

After the election debates, YouGov Polls found that the British public found Jeremy Corbyn to be more honest and in touch than Boris Johnson, but that Johnson was more prime ministerial. What that says about us, is that we don’t want our prime minister to be trustworthy or in touch with the needs of common people.

This in no way is to let the Labour party of the hook, although I am inclined to believe their transgressions are fewer. When I first started putting this article together, it was very much in the belief we would end up with a Labour-led coalition. A fresh and tempered government we might be able to use as a tool for change.

This is an appeal to let the people define the job role of a politician because it seems to me, we have no idea what that is supposed to be. We’ve let politicians define their jobs for way too long. Sure, they vote on bills and make deals, I understand that, but those are the duties, not the function of their role.

We like to imagine politicians’ goals are to act in the interest of the country, but there is nothing in place to ensure that happens. In your job, you work for the benefit of your employer and if you didn’t, there are systems in place to make sure you get the sack. We don’t vote once every 5 years to decide if you were the least bad employee.

My hope was that a shift to the left might encourage more political responsibility and accountability. It would have started the ball rolling on politics, being a calling, not a personal achievement, entitlement or lucrative step into big business.

We need to explore new ways of changing what a politician is to make that job beneficial for society. Such as, not letting politicians on TV, with civil servants delivering policies to the media instead so we can actually get information without spin or blustering or phone-pinching. Or making politicians’ income equal to the national average (£29,000) rather than the £79,468, plus private income they actually get. That way, they’d genuinely understand the life of the average voter and be economically incentivised to improve Britain.

Once they leave office, they can have this wage for a few more years to make sure they are secure, rather than be poached by lobbyists with plans to hire MPs in order to get around the laws built just years before. Just something, anything, to bring morality, honesty, honour and fair playback to politics.

I wanted this to be about introducing more accountability to a working poisonous system, the first step in some massive reform. The Tory manifesto has promised to “look at the broader aspect of the constitution” but somehow, letting politicians alone decide how politics should work, doesn’t fill me with faith.