Simon Cowell - From X Factor to P Factor?

As we trailed yesterday on Government 2010, Simon Cowell – of X Factor fame – was interviewed by Kirsty Wark on Newsnight last night.  And he admitted that he had been considering some type of “referendum” format show to allow the general public to decide on matters of national importance.  He referred to big issues such as our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.  He also mentioned knife crime, and the effectiveness of the judicial system.

In short, it would appear that he has in mind a political version of X Factor – P Factor? 

To an extent that’s the problem.  While 20 million people watched X Factor on Saturday evening I’m just not convinced that Political Factor would be quite so captivating a view.  I presume Mr Cowell would propose presenting the various flavours of the argument and allowing the nation to decide.  However, that, I presume, would require politicians to present the counter-arguments.  Or perhaps academics or other experts would be required.  But that is hardly the same as a song show.  Political debates are not exactly as engaging for the audience.

Or perhaps I’m wrong.  Perhaps it’s all about presentation.  Perhaps Syco TV and Simon Cowell’s production team could sprinkle their fairy dust over the format and produce something as engaging as the X Factor final – which kept around 20 million viewers engaged for 2 hours on a Sunday evening. 

But then there is the voting system.  While 3.5 million votes may have been cast on Saturday and Sunday evenings for the X Factor Finalists the main voting channel was telephone.  If you squinted hard enough you may have noticed that free voting via the ITV web site was permissible.  Sky and Virgin viewers could also vote using their keypads.  But the system required no prior registration.  Multiple voting was permitted.  There was no representativeness in the achieved sample – except that it represented those most keen to spend most money to see their favourite singer win.  That’s hardly a basis for deciding on life and death issues like a British troop presence in Iraq.  And ITV has also been mired in controversy in its ability – or inability – to run the flawed system it has. 

But, let’s return to Cowell’s point.  If done right, the mood of the nation can be taken using TV coupled with a feedback mechanism.  Moreover we live in a society where technology is so pervasive that perhaps the time is right for mass participative democracy.  That would achieve some really laudable aims. 

For one thing it might allow less of a reliance on Party-based politics where politicians, increasingly, have to behave more like sycophantic middle-managers than free thinkers.   So obsessed has the Party based system become with popular opinion that the very rationale for Party politics is declining.  Parties are fragmenting over single issues.  And single issues can easily be decided using mass participative referenda.

All-Internet pollsters – such as YouGov – have developed processes for achieving highly accurate predictions of election outcomes by having well structured and representative panels.  It is not beyond the realms of possibility that a mass participative panel could be created.  It may require a single, secure, registration based Internet based system in the short term – but it is doable.  Over time multiple or preferred channels could be offered. 

There are arguments against referenda based systems.  Mostly the negative arguments are put forward by career politicians who seem to believe that they have a God-given right to decide our futures on our behalf. 

However, the time is rapidly approaching where people of all talents – including effective mass communicators like Simon Cowell – should play their parts in deciding what a better system of democracy might look like. 

I’ll end with an anecdote.  Next year the government will be bringing to parliament a draft Digital Economy Bill that features a highly controversial series of clauses relating to copyright.  This is a yawn-inducing issue for most of the population.  But it is important.  The government’s Digital Tsar, Stephen Timms, has recorded a video explaining the Bill.  It’s on YouTube.  Last time I looked, just a minute or so ago, it had been watched 865 times.  Last time I looked, Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent Audition video had been viewed over 81 million times. 

Go for it Simon.