LF25 Douglas Carswell – The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy

Douglas Carswell MP on his latest book The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy. The West is in crisis. Governments have grown too big, living beyond their means – and ours. The true costs of extra officialdom have been concealed. Parasitical politicians have been hopeless at holding to account the elites who now preside over us. As a result, Western nations are mired in debt and chronically misgoverned. Should we despair? In The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy Douglas Carswell argues that we should not. Precisely because the West’s Big Government model is bust, things are going to have to change. The West is on the cusp of dramatic changes driven by the failure of her elites, technology and mathematics. At the precise moment Big Government becomes unaffordable, the internet revolution makes it possible to do without it. Be optimistic. We are going to be able to manage without government – and thrive. The old political and economic order is about to give way to something vastly better. Douglas Carswell was first elected as a member of the British Parliament in 2005. Prior to entering politics, he worked in commercial television and then fund management. Co-author of best-selling book, The Plan: 12 Months to Renew Britain, Douglas is an advocate of radical political reform. In 2009, UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph nominated him a Briton of the Year, and Spectator magazine readers voted him Parliamentarian of the Year. He blogs each day at www.TalkCarswell.com and has written for the Financial Times, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, News of the World, Telegraph and Spectator, as well as appearing on the Politics Show, Newsnight, Sky and Radio 4’s Week in Westminster and Westminster Hour. www.douglascarswell.com Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’ Tangerine Dream ‘White Eagle’