Report to the People
30th October 2004
Philosophically Speaking
Never
mind a Scottish Parliament Chamber full of rowdy MSPs just back from a long
lunch. Never mind a mass meeting of
200 angry boilermakers. Friday
night saw me addressing one of the most intimidating meetings of my life – the
Greenock Philosophical Society.
I
had toyed with the idea of starting with a hilarious quip along the lines of,
“It’s lovely to be here at the Philosophical Society. Or, at least, I think I’m here.”
But
I thought better of it. They’d
probably heard it once or twice before and, as anyone who has ever watched a
party political conference knows, politicians don’t really do jokes.
(Intentionally, at least.)
So
what on earth do you say to a group of philosophers about the Scottish
Parliament?
In
the end, I decided to have a stab at exploring how post-devolution Scotland is
governed. How, I wondered, if we
call ourselves a liberal-democracy, can we have bodies such as Health Boards
making policy decisions without the key democratic elements of accountability to
and participation of the people? And
does a parliament which looks at banning smoking in pubs, or a government which
tells you to eat fruit and read to your children, faithfully embody the liberal
tradition of the limited state?
I
didn’t, of course, come close to answering these questions.
But, preparing for and attending the meeting did get me thinking about
some ideas I intend to examine further – which is the point, after all, of a
philosophical society.
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