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.
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.
Perhaps at the end of this shitstorm, clusterfuck etc Niall, your ideas may gain more traction. meanwhile keep going.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed since our start in 2012 it became clear, after a while, that promoting our agenda was going to be difficult as people were still too comfortable and especially competeing with Brexit that took over politics.
DeleteAs to your comment to 'keep going' my objective for the last few years has been to keep THA's pilot light on which it is and can be fired up as and when the people wake up!
While the last two elections have been dominated by BREXIT, it possible that the next one will be about a failure of government. An opportunity might present itself then. I'm giving it some thought.
DeleteI do believe next year with 'Brexit' or more correctly 'Transend' out the way, for good or ill - probably mostly ill, the 'People' will hopefully start to focus on how useless our political class is.
ReplyDeleteA large number of people already don't vote in elections, 16 million in last year's GE, which clearly indicates the level of dissatisfaction with our politicians.
If the 'People' don't stir next year then I really do wonder what it will take to get them motivated to recognise the need for the reforms to our governance offered by our six demands.