Party Before Country

I have posted on instances where the heading of this post have come to notice, for example here and here and today my attention is drawn - courtesy of Ian Parker Joseph - to this story which appeared in yesterday's Daily Mail and this story which appears in today's Sunday Times.

For far too long we, the public, have allowed Conservative and Labour governments to usurp power from the people and, in so doing,  have removed from the people the ability to decide matters for themselves. Those governments have changed this country beyond description by their allowing the laws of the land to be formulated and implemented by a system of government which is alien to our traditions and way of life. They also stand accused of putting party before country by the system of 'whipping' their votes in Parliament and by their dictatorial attitude to their own party members.

In their campaign to secure a referendum by those entering the House of Commons as a result of the next general election, The Albion Alliance has had to introduce a secret pledge system so that Conservative candidates can make a personal pledge to their potential voters to fight for a referendum on the EU, without the interference from CCHQ

It would now appear that David Cameron has broken yet another promise, if the facts of the Sunday Times story are true - and one suspects they most definitely are true - with his new policy on the matter of the 'West Lothian Question'. Bearing in mind Cameron's stated aim to devolve power, is this question of changes to the voting system of MPs not one that the people should decide? No doubt this latest 'policy change' by Cameron is dictated by his wish to be 'all things to all men' and an attempt to boost votes for his party.

By his insistence that all Conservative candidate's literature is 'approved' by CCHQ and by his latest 'breaking of a promise', this is but another example of a political party putting party before country. A very simple means of solving the West Lothian Question is put forward by Ukip in their Constitutional Policy which would save millions by doing away with MSPs and AMs and letting those Scottish and Welsh MPs vote on their matters and leave English MPs to vote on those matters that only affect England. There is also a policy to 'restore Britishness' which can be read here and which contains a summary of the proposed method to solve the West Lothian Question. (with apologies for a bit of partisanship)

If our political elite wish to maintain that they are elected to speak for the people, then it is about bloody time they did just that and desisted speaking for themselves and their party!