Blick_UK Politics (9780198825555)_CH10

10.3 In theory 237

How did we get here? 10.2  BAME members of the House of Commons

The first MP who we would categorize in contemporary terms as BAME was James Townsend, elected in 1767. There were possibly a further eleven MPs within this group up to 1929, then none until 1983. In this year, a Conservative candidate with an Indian father and another Conservative with a Turkish father be - came MPs. In 1987, four BAME candidates secured places in the Commons. All were Labour MPs: three for London constituencies and one for Leicester East. Diane Abbott, representing Hackney North and Stoke Newington, became the first BAME woman MP (Uberoi and Lees, 2020: 8–10). Confirming that having diverse candidates elected to the Commons is not in itself enough to end discrimination, an investigation into intimidation in public life published in 2017 found that Abbott was subject to more online abuse than any other woman MP (Committee on Standards in Public Life, 2017: 27). The total number of BAME—or ‘ethnic minority’, the term used in the source—MPs has risen at every election since 1987. The figures are shown in Figure 10.8.

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1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019

FIGURE 10.8  Number of ‘ethnic minority’ (term used in source) MPs over time Source: Uberoi and Lees, 2020: 10

open to those who wish to join; and people are able to take part in activities such as government consultations (see Chapters 6 and 7). Despite these rights and mechanisms for participation, it would be a mistake to assume that everyone has equal levels of political power. Political scientists define power as the abil- ity to achieve desired outcomes (Beetham, 1991). In any polit- ical system, it is not realistic to expect to get what we want all the time: no one is all powerful. But some people seem more able to achieve their objectives than others, because of who they are, or the social groups they belong to. Being attached to a large group of like-minded people can be a means of achieving power. For instance, someone might be a support- er of a political party that wins office at an election, and gov- erns in a way that fits with their outlook. They might take part in a campaign that achieves change over a particular issue. In these kinds of instances, there is strength in numbers. A large

group of people with a shared interest or interests is able to utilize democratic processes to wield power. But some people might find it easier to organize and ac- tually achieve what they want than others. A phenomenon known as the ‘collective action problem’ means that—even when there is a large group of people who might benefit from coming together in pursuit of common goals—there are barriers to their doing so (Olson, 1965). They might lack resources such as money, time, political experience, or personal confidence, hampering the potential for their coming together. Other groups might possess such re- sources in abundance, making it easier for them to organ- ize and exert pressure on decision makers. Even if these more privileged individuals are relatively small in number, they might consistently achieve influence out of propor- tion to their actual size (Beetham et al., 2008a). A particular event or moment can provide a means of overcoming the

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