What governments say is not what they do.

Leaving aside that ‘Events dear boy events’ can throw any government’s plans out of kilter a party’s manifesto is invariably not worth the paper it is written on, for even as an indication of a direction of travel they end up bearing little to no relation to what actually happens.

Let’s take a look at the Blairite six-point plan on the front page of the 2019 Tory manifesto as a case in point.

1.       Extra funding for NHS with 50,000 more nurses and 50 million more GP surgery appointments a year.

2.       20,000 more police and tougher sentencing for criminals.

3.       An Australian style points-based system to control immigration.

4.       Millions more invested every week in science, schools, apprenticeships and green infrastructure while controlling debt.

5.        Reaching Net Zero by 2050 with investment in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and pollution.

6.       We will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT, or National Insurance.

The recent spring statement has shattered the sixth point and their glorified promises on Net Zero made no mention of the likely £3 trillion costs or the removal of everyone’s perfectly good gas boiler for a hugely costly less efficient heat pump.

The costs of installing an air source heat pump can vary from £8,000 to £18,000, while ground source heat pump costs can range anywhere from £20,000 to £35,000.

As I say none of this detail was covered or even alluded to in their 59-page manifesto with just one of those pages devoted to their plans on Green issues.

As I’ve said so often before the only time the ‘People’ can pass judgement on a government is at election time but given the pool of politicians, from both parties, is now of such a low standard of general competence more and more people have decided not to vote.

In 1950 voter turnout stood at 84%, dipped to a low of 59% in 2001 and stood at 67% in 2019 which did not receive a presumed Johnson bounce as the turnout in 2017 was 69%!

Our fourth demand ‘The People’s Consent’ aims to give the ‘People’ the power to have their direct say between elections thus giving us the chance to react to issues at the time without having to wait until the next election when once again the parties’ manifestos try and seduce us with a fresh load of promises.

Given that government should be “of the people, by the people, for the people” we still have a long way to go before we can claim to live under a real democratic system of governance.  

Why has the UK experienced more freedom and less despotism over the centuries?

 I read an excellent book a while back called ‘Prisoners of Geography’ by Tim Marshall and in the chapter on Western Europe he wrote this:-

“ There is a theory that the relative security of the UK over the past few hundred years is why it has experienced more freedom and less despotism than the countries across the channel. The theory goes that there were fewer requirements for ‘strong men’ or dictators, which, starting with Magna Carta (1215) and then the Provisions of Oxford (1258), led to forms of democracy years ahead of other countries.” *

While, as he goes on to say, this is not provable it is none the less an interesting observation and helps explain why we were a reluctant member of the political EU project. That is not to say we don’t wish to trade with our neighbours which is of an entirely different order.

 

Interestingly, and a very serious point I want to make is that the current state of our freedoms are increasingly being eroded by a political class that while talking up their democratic credentials are only too keen to ignore our wishes and tell us what to do. There could be no more telling examples of this than the way our government is dealing with Covid pandemic and and their Net Zero policies.

 

This is why I became involved with THA as I increasingly felt our governance was becoming less democratic and really was no longer fir for purpose and need a complete rethink. 

However the facts are that revolutionary political reform, of the magnitude advocated by our six demands, will not happen overnight. Just look at the state of our democracy now, since the signing of the Magna Carta 813 years ago, we still don’t have proper democracy based on the true meaning of the word expressed as ‘People and Power’. I have said before and I’ll say it again at 70, while I hope to see our demands enacted in my life time,  I may well not but that is no reason not to have started the ball rolling for the reform of our governance so desperately now needed in this country.

 

* Tim Marshall is also very clear about the Russian Ukrainian geopolitical relationship and I highly recommend his book. 

Why Switzerland doesn't want to join the EU.

 We were taken into the Common Market in January 1973 without being asked but were given a referendum asking us if we wanted to stay in it in June 1975.

In Switzerland, with their system of Direct Democracy, the people's opinion acts as a balance or check on their government which is how democracy should work.

Democracy being made up of two Greek words Demos meaning 'People' and Kratos meaning 'Power'.

This article is well worth a read but sadly as links don't still open on this 'google' blog you will have to copy and paste it in your search engine to open it.

 https://www.expatica.com/ch/politics/sw-why-switzerland-doesnt-want-to-join-the-european-union-231195/

 

Our system of governance v. the Russian.

 It is one of those weeks when I was finding it hard to come up with something to write about especially with the entire focus on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Then I got to thinking the very simple thought that however bad we feel our governance is we clearly have to be thankful we don't live in Putin's Russia.

This link is good summary and reminder of Putin's 2018 Presidential victory which I'm afraid you will need to cut and paste  as it doesn't open of this Google blog for some reason.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/russia-putin-election-disinformation-troll/555878/

At least at our General Elections we can vote out a Prime Minster and his/her government and in the last 77 years we have had seven changes of governments, between Labour and the Conservatives, that is since 1945.

I still believe very strongly that our system of governance is no longer fit for purpose which is why I've been involved with The Harrogate Agenda and its six demands for the past 10 years.

There is one undisputed fact about our Agenda and that is that it exists and while anybody can support all or just some of our demands they can never claim to have invented them!

 

Swiss sytle Direct Democracy.

 On the 13th February the Swiss held a binding referendum to seek the views of people on four legislative proposals. All four questions were on the same ballot sheet.

The people only suppoted one of the four rejecting the other three against the government's wishes.

The results and topic were as follows:-

1. Agreed to limit tobacco advertising
   
2. Rejected ban on animal testing
3. Rejected abolish of stamp duty on Swiss companies
4. Rejected increase funding to Swiss media.

 Further details are here which I'm afraid you will have to cut and paste as this blog still doesn't do links that open:-

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/results-of-the-vote-of-february-13--2022-switzerland-medias-tobacco/47271566

As I've covered before on this blog Switzerland has three tyypes of referendums:-

1. Popular - which allow the people to make proposals

2. Facultative/Optional - which allows the people to approve or reject gvoernment legislation

3. Mandatory - Needed if the issue alters the constitution.

This is real democracy in action as it is the people's views that should be paramount over their elected representatives who should be their servants and not their masters.

Official government Petition on Net Zero.

At the last election the two main parties committed to Net Zero by 2050 with the Lib Dems setting out to get there more quickly but no party gave any details, except for the odd line in their manifestos. Whoever you voted for Net Zero was a given.

In October’s budget Rishi Sunak increased total spending and taxes, neither being good for economic recovery, but made no mention of the potential £3 trillion bill for meeting the government’s Net Zero target. Interestingly, in the Telegraph recently, a poll showed that 42% of adults supported a vote on Net Zero.

This is the reason I launched this official government petition on the 27^th October last year to give the ‘People’ a say. The petition title is ‘Hold a referendum on whether to keep the 2050 Net zero target.’

This is the link to it – https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/599602

The petition goes on to state:-

“I believe the Net Zero lacks legitimacy and without a referendum the current Climate change policy lacks the explicit consent of the people, as argued by The Harrogate Agenda. This exposes a massive democratic deficit in our system of government.”

The petition will be up for six months, until April 27^th. We achieved 10,000 signatures in the first two weeks and received an official response from the government. After a rapid start we have slowed and now stand at just under 22,000 votes, and now seem unlikely to get to 100,000 votes which is the requires number to make the government consider whether to schedule a debate in parliament on the subject.

While I believe there is pressure building on the government backbenches to challenge this policy, the ‘People’ should also have their say. If we can reach 100,000 votes it will give the government cause to consider whether proceeding without the consent is electorally wise. With THA’s six demand in place, and particular demand four ‘The People’s Consent’ the people would have the mechanisms to call for a referendum on the policy but in the meantime this petition, is the only tool available to ‘us’ and we should not waste it.

In the next few weeks, I will be stepping up my campaign of e-mailing the MSM to try and get them to give airtime to this petition to build on the limited success I’ve had so far with The Freedom Association, Bruges Group, Free Speech Union and GWPF who have all helped to promoted it.

If you believe in democracy, whether you support or oppose this government’s Net Zero policy, you should sign this petition and more importantly pass it on to your friends and contacts. The decision to proceed on this hugely costly, important and divisive issue should not be for the government alone to make but should involve the ‘People’ in a referendum.

 

 

 

Protests, Petitions and Referendums

We all know that the 'People' get to vote at elections, albeit an increasing number don't bother, but between them the only avenues available to express dissent is to take to the streets or raise a petition.

The street protests over the war in Iraq, on 13th February 2003, numbered around million in the UK and 36 million around the world but as we know achieved nothing. In general street protests come and go and seldom achieve their aim.

Petitions, have now been formalised by the government with the ability to raise a petition on the government’s website. The petitions are up for six months like this one currently running on Net Zero started by me under THA banner.

 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/599602

After 10,000 signature you are guaranteed a government response, which we have had, and if the petition reaches 100,000 you might, but it is not definite, get a debate in parliament. The petition currently has over 21,000 'votes' and runs until 27th April this year.

Private petitions delivered to No 10 Downing Street are another route to go but, unlike the government's official website, do not guarantee a response let alone a possible debate in parliament. 

Either way, petitions or protests, are fairly blunt instruments and will change little with government's able to ignore both. This applies to protests and petitions against or demanding changes to government policy or demanding the government consider a new policy not on their current legislative programme. In the first case it is true parliament has to approve the policy but a government with a reasonable majority is seldom defeated.

So, unless the government initiates a referendum, as they did over staying in the Common Market and EU exit, the votes on devolution and the one on AV, then the people are pretty powerless to change a government's mind having to wait until the next election to voice their opinion.

Our fourth demand 'The People's Consent' gives the people the power to initiate three types of referendum. The first is to recommend the government considers new laws, the second is to stop a piece of legislation and the third allows the people to challenge the decisions of their government or official bodies - by elected and appointed officials, including ministers and judges.

To prevent endless referendums being raised they would need to meet set benchmarks before being approved and would only carry weight if the vote, when held, passed a set turnout criteria and a received a clear majority for the proposal.

As is apparent government policy is often determined by well-funded professional lobbying groups so it is time the 'People' had the mechanisms to demand its government take certain actions or stop a particular policy. Our petition for a referendum on the government's £3 trillion Net Zero policy, which has no democratic mandate, is of course a case in point.

After a quick start voting has slowed so I recently arranged for 100 postcards, promoting our petition, to be sent to likely MPs asking them to support and promote our petition. I have other avenues I shall pursue over the coming months but without our fourth demand set in law it is very difficult for the people to be heard.

 Finally, as the 'Establishment' discovered, to their costs, with the Brexit vote, the ‘People’ do have their own opinions and real democracy should have the mechanisms for the ‘People’ to demand a referendum.