Why we need a People's democracy.

 A point I feel worth making over and over again, given the general decline of our country and competence of our governance, is that we have clearly entered the 'Age of Decadence' as described by Sir John 'Pasha' Glubb in his essay 'The Fate of Empires'.

The reality I fear, as we never learn from history, is that nations once in decline are unable to arrest the fall until they hit rock bottom when they can start the slow process of rebuilding.

One of the prominent recurring features during the 'A of D' is the complete incompetence of those in power which is why I've been promoting our six demands with its central aim of making our politicians our servants instead of our masters.

For those who think the 'People' cannot be trusted with extra powers over their politicians and only they should make decisions I would point out three things.

First, if a jury made up of men and women is considered good enough to pass judgement on the guilt or innocence of a person on trial then they possess the necessary common sense and ability to pass judgement on the competence of their politicians, which we can currently only do at elections, and it is a big mistake to judge people on those selected for vox pops.

Second, it is clear that elected politicians so often pass into law poorly drafted and debated legislation influenced by small pressure groups which do not reflect the wishes of the public at large.

Third, while minority views should be supported and protected it is the views of the majority that should prevail in any country calling itself a democracy.

So finally it is now my strong conviction that the more sortition we introduce into our system of governance the better governed we will be.

THA's reason for being is to create a 'People's Democracy' and check out our new website.

https://theharrogateagenda....

 

A few thoughts of the week.

1.As I posted on Twitter the other day.

The Harrogate Agenda

@NiallWarry

28 May

It should not be up to politicians, the MSM or pressure groups as to how we are governed but the views and wishes of the 'People' that should hold sway. This is why we need these reforms - http://harrogateagenda.org.uk/Default.aspx

 

2. I read in the Sunday papers about the plotting going on behind the scenes in the Conservative party as to who should replace Boris and it struck me that the decision to get rid of the PM should be up to the ‘People’ and not Tory MPs. Our third demand ‘a Separation of Power’ calls for an elected PM.

 

3. One of the reasons politicians are pressing ahead with the new legislation to ‘Tackle On-Line Abuse’ is because so many of them receive hate mail and death threats. I don’t wish to make light of this but I would suggest if politicians up their game and did a decent job of serving the wishes of the people, they were elected to serve, they might start receiving letters of praise rather than hate.

 

4.All the MSM are at it, including Andrew Neil in the Mail, which is that when they have been writing about the shootings in Uvalde, Texas they all fail to mention the ‘elephant in the room’ which is that the shooter was a regular marijuana user as pointed out by Peter Hitchens. One can only assume that with so many of their friends as recreational drugs users they don’t see this as a problem which it most certainly is especially amongst the less well off.

 

The Harrogate Agenda stands for a ‘People’s Democracy’.     

 

 

Local democracy is a sham.

This article is by the Editorial  Chairman and co-founder of 'The Week' Jeremy O'Grady.

Rumour has it that the local elections were held across much of the country last week, but if so I missed them. 

I knew there were elections of course they just didn't feel like local ones: they were everywhere treated as a verdict on Westminster politics.

Would Johnson be punished for Partygate?

Would Starmer make headway?

No talk of the distinctive policies made by this or that council; no focus on Aspires remarkable triumph in Tower Hamlets. Yet how else could it be?

So nationalised, so beholden to decisions  made in Westminster/Whitehall has our politics grown, that local goernment is now a cipher.  And does that matter?

In all sorts of ways I think it does, though one example will have to suffice: the selection of academy trusts to run local schools. The Department for Education  is currently pushing for one such trust to take over the school my child attends (Holland Park in London).That could involve it forming a trust with a highly regarded school nearby, the option desired by the local council and many parents.

The other option, favoured by the DfE, is for it to join a big national trust: far easier to deal with. So the DfE has quietly appointed to the school a clutch of compliant governors (none from the locality) who've duly rubber- stamped its wishes. And as local government has no say in the matter, and there's no other legitimised way of registering local preference, anyone protesting their decision is easily dismissed as vexatious. The idea of local representation was once seen as a fundamental plank of democracy, In Britain, that plank has rotted.

Our second demand 'Real Local Democracy' addresses this issue and makes local democracy count again by decentralising power down to the counties and districts and thus reducing the size of central government.