Why Irvine Welsh’s alternative form of democracy wouldn’t work

This weekend I’m going to be in Stirling interviewing Irvine Welsh as part of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival. The last time we met was more than a decade ago, when we were both living different lives.

He was staying in Chicago, teaching creative writing at Columbia College and I was making a documentary series about successful Scots. He graciously agreed to take part.

We played pool, went to a baseball game and I have a grainy photo of us both pretending to wash the windows at the top of Chicago’s tallest skyscraper. The rest is a bit of a blur.

What I do clearly remember was his frustration with UK politicians. It wasn’t his prime reason for living in the States but he was enjoying the fruits of a system that could elect Barack Obama.

Much has changed since then but now living back here, his desire for better politics has not mellowed with age. “I think people don't trust politicians and I think they're absolutely right not to,” he said last year.

Novelist Irvine Welsh has radical ideas about how to shake up politics in the UK (Picture: Anthony Wallace) | AFP via Getty Images

He proposes a radical alternative. The Trainspotting author would abolish voting and replace it with a lottery system which would select members of the public at random to be elected as an MP. A separate lottery would choose the Prime Minister from a list of 40 names.

He argues that this would crush the lobby system and political nepotism and “make it incumbent on society to have a proper education system”. It might sound outlandish but it highlights a genuine issue across politics, that lack of outside experience.

The UK Parliament’s own website notes: “The past 20-30 years have seen changes in the professional background of MPs, with increasing numbers having worked as MPs' staff, ministerial special advisers or think-tank policymakers before running for elected office.”

With that comes the risk of a decline in diversity of experience and knowledge. Next week a new series of the political discussion programme Debate Night starts with me on BBC Scotland. Based on the Irvine Welsh model, it would have a very different feel. “On our panel this evening, four people who, until the recent election, were a plumber, accountant, teaching assistant, waitress, and Bob who retired recently after 40 years in the armed forces.”

It would make for an eclectic mix of ideas and priorities but something would be missing – a burning desire to actually do the job. As Bob would know from his time serving the country, the advice in the military is ‘never volunteer’. Conscripting politicians might not lead to the best outcomes.

In my experience, the vast majority of politicians do the job because they want to help their country and make it better. We do need to see more people with work experience in different sectors engaging with politics and putting themselves forward for election. That will produce political institutions more rooted in the real world.

But whatever the background of those choosing to stand, they are still likely to be more engaged than someone who wakes up one morning to a brown envelope telling they have to spend the next five years being an MP.

Our politicians at the moment are far from perfect but that’s because they are human and perhaps more like us than we care to think.