Cameron's Democracy
Well done to The Archbishop of Canterbury for speaking out against
Cameron’s agenda of change, that nobody voted for. The main
coalition policies I have noticed so far have been:
• Reform the NHS,
• Sell off the countryside,
• Regime-change in oil-rich Libya,
• Reduce prison sentences,
• Privatise university education.
It’s nothing new for a government to say one thing and then do another. But it does prompt the question: What sort of democracy is this?
• Reform the NHS,
• Sell off the countryside,
• Regime-change in oil-rich Libya,
• Reduce prison sentences,
• Privatise university education.
It’s nothing new for a government to say one thing and then do another. But it does prompt the question: What sort of democracy is this?
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Did you vote to invade Iraq, bomb Serbia, break up the Union of Great Britain, create the biggest balance of payments deficit in history, tuition fees, relaxation of finance industry controls, gay marriage, tens of thousands of CCTV cameras, routine tracking of vehicles using APNR, privatisation of the railways, the water supply, the National Telephone infrastructure, the target oriented NHS points system, league tables for schools, privatise the railways, sell off of the council house stock, destroy the miners, etc etc. I know I didn't.
The kind of democracy we have, according to Winston Churchill, is the worst form there is apart from all the others that have been tried at various times and places. Not sure if it's an exact quote, but it's near enough.
But now I'm starting to wish we had Simon Cowell in charge. At least then we'd get a chance to vote on major policy changes.
Perhaps we should have a coalition of Michael McIntyre and Amanda Holden. Be good for a laugh at least.
Interesting, Alan, that you paraphrase Churchill who, despite being one of the last great bastions of British imperialism (which was surely more 'feudal' than 'democratic'), was also enough of a world statesman to see a bigger picture than most.
A lot has changed since Winnie's day though, hasn't it? We now live in what can only be called a 'Capitalist Democracy' - surely an oxymoron, can Capitalism really be democratic? We elect groups of people to act on our behalf and they surf the political and economic breakers appearing to make decisions to their own agendas. Did I want us to go to war in Iraq? Does it matter since I wasn't asked? Had I been asked would I have been able to make an informed decision?
However, I do believe that something different is happening in today's political landscape. It's happening in forums like this... or via text, email, tweets and social networks all over the world. Normal, everyday individuals like ourselves are communicating across boundaries and borders in an unprecedented way. And all across the world we are calling for an account.
And in the background a bell is tolling.
I know they're trying to reduce the deficit and pull the country out of this recession- but they're going about it the absolute wrong way.
God- it infuriates me.
You can't cut public spending in a bid to save money. As a direct result of those spending cuts..my firm lost it's major client- the NHS and as a direct result of that I lost my job. So what they're not spending on hospital refurbs they are now spending on my Job seeker's allowance- and not just mine- just about every other architect I know has either lost their job or have had their hours cut. So I'm not earning money and I'm not spending it either.
And it's going to get worse. A lot worse.
What state is this country going to be in in 5 years time? No one can afford to go to Uni. Those leaving Uni can't get a job. We're going to be a nation of unskilled workers.
01 Attack Iraq now
02 Wait for another UN resolution
03 Don't interfere
We'd then tune in for the results show later that evening.
As it is, a decision is taken, and a Dirty Dossier is fabricated to win over public support. Very poor.
As Gerilyn says though, the cuts now are not going to work- the only way to get people spending is to get a feel-good factor. The ongoing cuts experienced in Greece , Ireland etc... are showing that cuts become a vicious circle. It is what happened in the Great Depression as well- everyone tightened their belts, then tightened them again, and again.
I find it a bit ironic that if debt is such a bad thing why is the way out of the situation seen to be to get banks lending and getting small businesses to take on lots of debt?
Meanwhile the Archbishop should keep out of politics and Buckingham Palace should have had Blair and Brown at the wedding.
The economy should be run by economists. The health service by professionals who have been there and done it and know the problems and how to tackle them. The same for education.
The politicians should not be let anywhere near them. In fact, do we need them?
We got to vote on the relatively pointless AV issue. So we should get to vote on Tuition Fees and NHS reform too, given that these were never proposed before the election. As nahual pointed out, things are changing. With technology as it is, it should now be possible for the public to easily have their say on these major issues. Then we would have a democratic society.
Like this AV system- they reckoned the old system wasn't working- because of the hung parliament we ended up with at the last election- but then the alternative they offered us didn't seem any better. Another waste of time vote. Still- what with money being tight and all, it's just nice to have an excuse to get out of the house isn't it?
I kinda wish some other more responsible country would march in- slap C&C across the back of the head and put a nice sensible person in charge.
Oh and Blair didn't get invited to the wedding because the Royal family never liked him.
Don’t you think it would be so much better here if we had a strong, far sighted government, managing affairs for the whole nation and independent of the ‘me’ and ‘now’ that determines our predictable voting habits?
It would be great if Mr Cameron were to present us with some great long-term ideas. But, in my opinion, the public should still be able to vote on which direction we take. Maybe he does have a secret plan to make the country great again, and you would think with his priviledged Eton/Oxford education he should be able to explain it to the population - something he's failed to do with his Big Society idea.
My preference would be for the public to have more of a say in how our money is spent. For example, if it was down to the public, the banking sector would have been punished for their irresponsible behaviour, but because the conservative party is largely financed by those same people, nothing is done.
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