Shortly before President Abraham Lincoln was assasinated, he is said to have made a speech that asserted ‘the ballot is stronger than the bullet’. He had only just been re-elected and begun his second term as President, when during a theatre performance of Our American Cousin a bullet was fired by confederate sympathiser, John Wilkes Booth, resulting in the eventual death of Lincoln.
The way we make decisions as a group influences much our daily lives. Politicians are powerful, but they are also public servants, elected by us. They have decisionmaking powers within government for meaningful societal change. We are fortunate in the UK that we can choose to either engage or disengage in our democratic political system, where we have the luxury of disagreeing or even protesting to effect change. On a global scale, an estimated 4 billion people across 70 countries will be exercising their democratic right to vote in what are purported to be free and fair elections (Financial Times 2024). It seems that 2024 is set to be a tumultuous and memorable year of politics, where we will see changes that have the potential to affect us for decades to come.
It is rumoured that the date of the UK 2024 general election will take place some time during the autumn, and prior to the general election, many of us will be voting in our local government elections on May 2nd 2024. We hold those we elect to certain expectations and standards, and assume they will represent us without fear or favour by upholding the values and beliefs they advertised when we voted for them.
The seven principles of public life, also known as the Nolan Principles (Gov.uk 1995) are ethical qualities that those who hold public office are expected to demonstrate and exhibit at all times.
The seven principles are:
- 1 Selflessness
- 2 Integrity
- 3 Openness
- 4 Objectivity
- 5 Honesty
- 6 Accountability and
- 7 Leadership
I would like to see the aesthetic sector adopting these principles. That would certainly get my vote.
The standards of both central and local government have left many of us appalled by issues such as the evidence heard at the covid enquiry, the recent post office scandal and the appaling handling of historical child sexual exploitation. Calls for change are forecast and being loudly echoed by political commentators.
The other half of the globe, ruled by dictatorships, are denied their chance to vote. So, when we are fortunate enough to have our voices heard, let us make the most of it. Whether it is the polling card that lands on the doorstep or the next Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) public consultation on training and educational standards within the aesthetic sector. Engage with it, make yourself heard, use your voice and vote. After all, it was Plato who said ‘one of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors’.