At the moment the only
times we get a chance to vote is at a General and Local Election or on the rare
occasion the government allows us a referendum.
At GEs there are a growing number of people who have concluded their vote
makes little difference as once elected governments simply ignore their wishes.
Some would argue Party manifestos have little value and they can certainly be
influenced by events but they do at least give an indication of the general policy
direction of the government however I believe there is a real problem when a
government proposes an action that has no democratic mandate at all.
Such a situation has arisen with our PM's decision to spend £1.3 billion, which
I'd remind you is our money, on supporting Ukraine and as this offer has come
completely out of the blue the government has absolutely no way of knowing if
we approve of this policy. While I assume parliament will have to approve this
spend does anyone seriously believe that the majority of our 650 MPs will not
'virtue signalling' their good intentions by approving this without any serious
analysis of the real value of such a decision - after all it is only our money.
We are the paymasters for all governments and should be consult on such
important matters and I would suggest that Blair would not have been allowed to
take us into Iraq, for while he may have duped parliament, I'm not so certain
he would have duped the public.
Our fourth demand 'The People's Consent' allows the people, if enough of us
want it, to demand off the government that they hold a referendum on such
issues and if agreed by us thus giving the government a democratic mandate to
act.
For those concerned that this would open the way for government by referenda it
is important to understand that the procedures we envisage being met before any
referendum could take place would naturally restrict the number that took
place.
However, the vital point about our fourth and also fifth demand is that
the government has no money except that which they collect from us and in any
democracy worthy of that name we should be allowed a say on how it is spent.
A phase I often use is that our politicians should be our servants and not our
masters and I'd be very surprised if anyone seriously disagree with that
sentiment.
Finally I'll leave you with this thought - Why should a mere majority of 650
MPs be able to pass legislation that has no legitimate democratic mandate without
asking for the opinion from the electorate of 47.6 million?
THA is about power. Who has it and who should have it. Power is concentrated far too much. Being fair in some ways, once upon a time people had to be of a certain class to have an education. Now everyone is educated. Power remains in the hands of the few.
ReplyDeleteEveryone may have been to school, many may have been to university, it doesn't mean they were actually educated. Many more are actually brainwashed rather than educated. Power remains in the hands of those who think they have a right to it.
Delete1. Can we really wait until Nov 5th to think about how to do something about this feudal state?
ReplyDelete2. £1.5bn to Ukraine? So what? Every day, it seems, anothe £1bn is spent on this or that. It cannot be very long before the current supporters of sterling say enough is enough, and its value plunges with all the commensurate consequences. As your neighbour writes: "A currency crash would cause sharp increases, not just in the prices of essential imports such as energy and food, but also in the cost of servicing debt. In defence of its currency, Britain could be forced into rate rises which would bring down its dangerously over-inflated property market."
PS. I think you have caught the North's typo virus.
Our national debt rises by £5000 a second. We are paying around £50bn a year in interest.
DeleteNiall, from a practical perspective, sometimes Governments have to respond quickly to events. It is indulgent to think we always have the luxury of giving time for a set number of the public to ask for a referendum, actually undertake the referendum and then implement the result. Furthermore, we all need to be abreast of events and understand what we are voting on.
ReplyDeleteThe war in Ukraine is a case in point. I used to read ‘Turbulent Times’ and both yourself and North were very confident that there wouldn’t be a full scale invasion and both of you were dismissive of UK and US intelligence reports that stated an invasion was coming. So, you would have made a decision based on an incorrect assessment of the information available. At least you had the good grace to quickly acknowledge you were wrong unlike North who initially had a hissy fit when his errors were pointed out to him.
I have many problems with THA, not because I fundamentally disagree with its ideas but because I believe a lot of it is impractical. However, my biggest issue with it is its refusal to acknowledge that the voting system in the Country needs to be changed asap but also that under the demands of THA the people of this Country couldn't demand a referendum on an issue of their choosing. That smacks of trying to control outcomes that you don’t like.
We are but spectators for all bar one day every five years.
ReplyDelete