Thursday 28 November 2019

Honesty is the best policy.

As the old saying goes "honesty is the best policy" and while there are certainly occasions when you need to be careful, like answering the question from your wife " do I look good in this dress?", as a general rule of thumb I think it is true.

In the court room scene in the film 'A few good men' Tom Cruise ( the lawyer) demands of Jack Nicholson (Colonel Jessop) that he "wants the truth" to which the Colonel replies " You cannot handle the truth."

I believe many of this countries running sores are caused by not facing the truth and of course our politicians are completely culpable as they are often ignorant of the truth and also incapable of facing up to it when it hits them between the eyes. Another factor is that on the occasions when they do know the truth they fear that the 'People' won't be able to handle it.

Our six demands are built around the principle that the 'People's' inherent sovereignty should be recognised and that their collective common sense can not only handle the truth but demand it!

For far too long our politicians have based their decisions on the last lobbying group to sit on them and that is no way to run anything let alone a country of 66.5 million with our depth of history, culture and traditions.

For a long time I have felt that that the 'People's' views and desires trump those of the politicians that govern us who prove daily how out of touch with reality they are cocooned, as they are, in the Westminster bubble.

We demand and expect the truth from our politicians which is the only sensible way to be governed.        

Saturday 16 November 2019

The folly of believing PR is the answer.

When  a 'personality' is asked their opinion about the perilous state of our parliament and goverance they invariably suggest that things would be improved with the introduction of a PR voting system.

This was certainly the case when I caught part of an interview, on Newsnight, with the comedian David Mitchell.

The advocates of PR believe that it would produce a more representative parliament consisting, as it would, of a greater number of political parties being represented.

I have long believed that our FPTP system, for all its faults, is still better than the endless coalitions that PR tends to produce. For those who believe PR is the missing 'Silver Bullet' we need to improve our governance I list below the three key reasons why it very quickly, after its introduction, makes matters worse.

First and foremost, a system of PR gives no more power to the people over their politicians between elections than they have now.

Second, at the time of an election nobody can be certain what parts of any party's election manifesto will prevail.

Third, a level of corruption becomes inbuilt as the parties do deals behind closed doors which of course excludes any participation by the people. And there is absolutely no proof, in countries with PR, that they are better governed.

Also it should be remembered that our two main parties are in themselves coalitions with a spectrum of views and opinions so at least we currently know which coalition of views will likely form the next government while PR simply produces more division and uncertainty.

The solution to improve our governance is to recognise the inherent sovereignty of the people and give them real power over their MPs and other officials.

Our six demands, not PR, are what is needed to improve our democracy and system of government.      

Thursday 7 November 2019

The tail wagging the dog syndrome!

I have just finished Douglas Murray's latest book ' The Madness of Crowds' on gender, race and identity.

The overriding thought I was left with is the danger to society when the tail starts wagging the dog.

While it is essential that minority issues are supported and protected the current politicisation of the gender, race and identity issues would seem to indicate, by those aggressively advancing these issues, that they don't seek solutions and compromise but want outright confrontation.

This situation is very dangerous and as Murray says in his last two sentences "To assume that sex, sexuality and skin colour mean nothing would be ridiculous. But to assume that they mean everything will be fatal."

The answer to so much we are facing, as I've come to see since being involved with THA, is the enacting of our six demands which in essence make the people sovereign, demand one, and with the other five give a sovereign people the real power, if and when they wish, to tell government when they have had enough and what they would like done next.

THA does not seek to govern which rightly must be left to the government of the day. However when enough people wish to see the government take a certain action, whether the issue raised be a minority or majority matter, then our fourth demand 'The People's Consent' gives the people the power to advise the government, stop specific legislation and challenge the decisions of official bodies including the courts.

As our politics continues its decline into the gutter the resolution is simple - give the people real power as clearly and comprehensively set out in our six demands.

Monday 4 November 2019

The age of protest.

Continuing the theme of my last post I also read in the latest issue of The Week, under the 'Controversy of the week', how the world is in a rage.

"How across the globe, angry people are taking to the streets in vast numbers. Sometimes the proximate cause is a price hike: in India, it was of onions; in Chile, of the fares on the metro. In Lebanon, it was a new tax on using Whatsapp; in France, higher fuel duties sparked the gilets jaunes protests. But the protests elsewhere - in Hong Kong, Moscow, Barcelona, Algiers - are more overtly a response to political repression and corruption."

The common thread according to Joshua Keating on Slate are austerity and the worsening inequality it brings.

A distinctive feature of these current protests is that they are largely leaderless organised by smartphones and inspired by hashtags and not central committees which makes it far more difficult for the authorities to trace the ringleaders.

Another factor is that the protesters are mostly the young who incidentally now make up about 41% of the global population of 7.7 billion who are 24 or under and in Africa 41% are under 15. Incidentally the growth in student numbers across the globe has risen giving us a ready pool of youngsters with too much time on their hands and a belly full of anti-establishment in their guts.

The more placid British don't seem to be rising to the occasion and I really do wonder, as I have for some time, what it will take to wake people up?

As I said in my post yesterday, once Brexit is out the way, we really do need to increase the efforts to educate the public at large and anyone interested in spreading the word can contact me off THA website front page at the 'contact' link at the top of the page.  

Saturday 2 November 2019

The problem with content people!

I was struck by this quote by the columnist Frank Tyger from the American business magazine Forbes taken form my copy of The Week under the weekly heading 'Wit and Wisdom':-

"Progress is not created by content people." 

This is so true, and something I have consistently said, with regards the progress of our Agenda.

The point I have made is that the people in this country are generally still too comfortable, and if you also include the dominance of Brexit on the political scene, then it is quite understandable how reforming our governance is still a low priority.

However I do believe that the complete omnishambles our parliament, and in particular our MPs, have made over  Brexit is starting to awaken the people to the realities at Westminster and the need for reforming the system.

The good news is that our six demands exist and I believe cover all the important areas that need to be addressed if we are to achieve a system of governance that more closely reflects the desires and wishes of the majority of the electorate.

The promotion and progress our our six demands requires a steady programme of education up and down the country and so I'd ask anyone interested in helping to spread the word to get in touch from the 'Contact' link on our website.