Burnside: why I have decided to stand at the next election

I’ve always said I wouldn’t go into politics.

“Don’t wrestle with a pig,” the saying goes, “because you both get covered in mud and the pig loves it.”

But I am breaking that vow because our political system is broken. I have been a critic for too long: it’s time to throw my hat in the ring.

Representative democracy depends on our parliamentarians actually representing us. Unfortunately, that’s just not happening at the moment.

Far too many of our elected representatives simply do not listen to the people who elected them: they listen instead to their big corporate donors.

That, more than…