With an electorate supposedly disinterested in politics, politicians expend an extraordinary amount of time and effort talking to them. That which they do say and write is either of no consequence or is a pack of lies, with the latter – it would seem – the sole intention of convincing the electorate that political parties are the panacea to all our nation’s ills; and in so doing devote a great deal of their time, effort and our money.
Politics today is no more than political parties creating a business for themselves to ensure their continued existence – and I exempt no political party from that accusation. They care not one iota for what those they are supposed to serve, think or want- their sole raison d’etré is to ensure their hold on power; power that they have, over decades, usurped from us while continually prattling on about the importance of democracy. Democracy? They don’t know the meaning of the word!
Regular readers will be aware that when discussing democracy in this country I prefer to use the terms democratised dictatorship or elective dictatorship. Consider: we currently have a government with policies for which not one member of the electorate actually voted; we have, next month, local elections which are supposed to install people who will ‘govern’ based on their manifestos, yet will be no more than ‘managers’ of central government policies diktats – think welfare reform as but one example.
While the present system of democracy, under which we are presently forced to live continues, there can be no devolution of power, localism or Big Society – and the latter already exists, although politicians seem unaware; think volunteer groups that run ‘meals on wheels’, hospital transport, community minibuses, etc, etc. All Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ is planned to do is bring all that under the control of central government.
Autonomous Mind posts on the fact it is suggested politicians are planning to make Freedom of Information (FOI) requests chargeable and rightly points out that that information is ours – so why the hell should we have to pay to access it. This ‘suggestion’ can only be viewed as an attempt by our political elite to make it even more difficult to access information to which we are entitled – and the first question is: why? What are they attempting to hide? I seem to recall a phrase, widely used by the political elite at the time when ID cards were planned: “If you have nothing to hide, what do you have to fear?”
In previous posts I have included in my demands for Direct Democracy the element of ‘Referism’. Direct Democracy hands the electorate the ability to halt the plans of politicians by means of referenda; plus the ability, through ‘initiatives’, to force politicians to implement policies that they, the politicians, don’t want. Richard North originally suggested the idea of ‘Referism’ when considering expenditure of public money, whereby politicians would be forced to ask for our agreement to their financial plans.
Come ‘Harrogate‘, perhaps included in our ‘demands’ should be that of a new constitution, one in which can be set out further ‘demands’; and in which constitution not one clause can be changed without the express consent of the people, through a referendum?
Just a suggestion……………….
