None of the Above

About the Book

None of the Above challenges the validity and legitimacy of modern political parties and politicians as providers of government. It provides a selective alternative to party electoral politics, which will eliminate the need for politicians to get themselves elected by using deceptive and deceitful behaviour.

The book reflects the current public mood of dissatisfaction with politics and politicians. It analyses the incentives that act upon politicians, and infers that the behaviour, which is repelling electorates, is chronic and structural. There is no cure as long as governments are elected; because the imperative placed on politicians is not serving the national interest; it is winning elections, which are two different things.

It analyses the very many shortcomings of the present system and considers proportional representation and direct referenda as alternatives. It concludes that it is impossible to use an electoral system, as long as the information, required to make informed decisions is selectively reported through the distorting lens of the media. It proposes that we should dispense with elections, and elected politicians, as the means of choosing a government.

It further proposes a selective democracy, where people are selected at random from the electoral roll, on a regional basis, to serve for a single five-year term. The existing Parliamentary Select Committee system will be expanded to include the formation of policy, taking this power away from: the party, the cabinet and the Prime Minister. To force politicians to bring change, it is proposes that voters remove the legitimacy of elected politicians by denying them their support and reducing the vote to an unviable level. They are asked to register their rejection of electoral politics by writing 'None of The Above.' on the ballot paper.

About the Author

Charles Efford was born in London in 1950 and went school at Clapham College in South London. At the aged 21 he moved to New Zealand where he lived for the nearly 30 years. In New Zealand he studied economics history and computing at Massey University. He has a continuing interest in these subjects and popular science, which he follows through wide reading.

The suggestion to elect the members of the House of Lords and the prospect of yet more politicians indulging in a duplicitous popularity poll to get themselves elected, crystallised into the idea that what was repelling large sectors of the population from politics, was the behaviour of politicians brought about by their need to get elected. This prompted him to answer the question of how a government could operate without elections and how this could be brought about.

None of the Above is his first book. He intends to write a sequel on why United Kingdom should leave the European Union.