Why all governments blunder.

Last week I commented on Dr North's blog EU Referendum, he is also the primary author of THA pamphlet, that " My default position is that all politicians, since the Thatcher era, are incompetent, duplicitous, celebrity orientated, overrated, in for the main chance, pigheaded ****s!"

My post generated 13 'likes', which is high, and a certain amount of critical comment mainly pointing out that Thatcher's government was far from perfect.

Initially I stood by my comment that Thatcher and her team were of a higher quality than today's offerings in parliament but did end up conceding that on handling this virus they would probably have fared no better.

I'm still of the opinion that as PM Mrs Thatcher was the person needed to arrest our country's economic decline but, on reflection, I have to agree that she and her minister's were still capable of getting things wrong.

I shouldn't have viewed  the past through rose coloured glasses especially being a ardent believer in the very enlightening book 'The Blunders of our Governments' by Crewe and King.

This book explains the reasons, both human and system failures, why governments, whether Labour or Conservative, blunder so spectacularly particularly on the big issues.

Here is my analysis of the book after I had read it some months ago now.

https://harrogateagenda.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-blunders-of-our-governments.html

There is only one remedy that I can see to this situation which is to make it possible for the collective will of the 'People' to be able to challenge their elected officials more readily who I believe would greatly benefit from recieving the fresh air of public opinion into the mix of their decision making.

Why should politicians or experts necessarily be right after all, as a Climate Change sceptic, I and many others believe Climate Change experts are promoting a complete myth for various political and financial ends.

Some still believe the answer to better governments is epistocray, to give the elite more power, which to me is the worst of all opinions as the 'elite ' have proved so often to be wrong.

For me the principles of sortition have far more chance to improve our governance and which ever way I look at this I now strongly believe that 'Real People Power' is the only way to proceed. Of course the 'People' will make mistakes but on balance I believe their mistakes will be no more frequent than those made by politicians and they will at least be their own mistakes from which they may well learn thus avoid making them again.

For far too long the 'People' have had to suffer the consequences of various governments blunders and THA's six demands seeks to address this problem making our politicians truly our servants instead of our masters.

The 'People' are NOT sovereign.

I have to confess I find youtube clips quite addictive and having searched for one end up watching others that are linked from the first.

It was in this way that I came across a clip on Jacob R-M who thinks himself a bit of a constitutional expert - well he is compared to the majority of cannon fodder who masquerade as MPs.

In it he made the point that it is the 'People' that are sovereign who lend that sovereignty to parliament expecting them to carry out their wishes. It is indeed true that at the time of a General  Election sovereignty is given back to the 'People' who vote in a government who then should represent them.

The trouble is that once elected our politicians return to the now sovereign parliament, taking control of the sovereignty that was briefly given back to us. Our MPs then become absorbed into the Westminster bubble and completely ignore us. Then just before the next election they promise us the earth, with of course our money, to try get themselves re-elected.

Alot of people have now become aware of this scam and simply don't bother to vote.

So let's be clear Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK, which can create or end any law. Generally, the courts cannot overrule its legislation and no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.

So Jacob R-M's assertion is misleading whether intentionally or not I can not say.

Our first and fourth and sixth demand  addresses this problem  The first recognises our inherent sovereignty which is confirmed in law by the sixth which gives us a written constitution and the fourth, most importantly, gives us the real power to hold the government to account between elections without which we have democracy in name only.

Real democracy must see the People recognised as sovereign and with the power to say NO when we wish to say so.

Covid -19 and our Six Demands.

Our six demands come as a complete package and all with the aim of reforming our system of governance and our democracy.

So what is the relevance of our demands with regards the current crisis surrounding Covid-19?

Demand One - Restores inherent 'Sovereignty to the People' which importantly turns our politicians into our servants instead of our masters. 

Demand Two -Seeks 'Real Local Democracy' which means less centralisation and returning real power to local authorities. In this crisis that would have seen EHOs, with local knowledge, tackling their own areas rather than relying on Whitehall.

Demand Three - Sees an 'Elected PM and a Separation of Powers' which would allow the cabinet to be made up people outside parliament thus allowing our government to break out of the Westminster bubble.

Demand Four - 'The People's Consent' would allow us a direct say in the governments actions if we so desired.

Demand Five - 'No Taxation or Spending without Consent' only allows the government to spend our money with our permission.

Demand Six - 'A Written Constitution' confirming all the above changes is essential and of course importantly setting out that it is the 'People' and not parliament that are the sovereign power in this country.

Quite simply the democracy we currently have in this country is not real democracy and it is only when our six demands are enacted will this be changed.