Thursday 4 November 2010

Democratised Dictatorship

"All governments are more or less combinations against the people....and as rulers have no more virtue than the ruled.....the power of government can only be kept within its constituted bounds by a display of a power equal to itself, the collected sentiment of the people."


Benjamin Franklin Bachem in a Phildelphia Aurora editorial 1794

I make no apologies for returning to mount another of my 'hobby-horses' with the title of this post, as it is a state of affairs under which we in this country now live.

Andrew Grice writes in the Independent on the matter of a formal agreement which might be reached by the Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties, following a successful outcome of the AV referendum which is being imposed on the electorate.

Besides being an admission by Cameron and Clegg that their respective parties are a 'tainted' brand, it raises a far more serious matter. Just what is the point in holding a general election if two of the parties involved intend 'rigging' the result beforehand? It is well known that the continual complaint by the electorate for not bothering to vote is that nothing changes - hardly surprising when all three of the Lib/Lab/Con are offering the same policies, but using different words - but do 'they' have to be so blatant about what amounts to more 'gerrymandering'?

As an afterthought I have realised that I should drop the word 'democratised' in any future posts on this subject!

7 comments:

Woodsy42 said...

It's quite clear isn't it WfW.
Nowadays we are no more 'democratised' than Russia was during the communist era. We have the vote but all candidates belong to the same party, and in any case regional governments (the UK) are overseen by an unelected authority.

Witterings from Witney said...

Woodsy42, of course, could not agree more!

Anonymous said...

re Woodsy42's point;

this is why we were calling it the EUSSR, what, 2 years ago now? Remember the establishment's disdain? "oh" they said "you shouldn't call it the EUSSR, its nothing like the USSR; and besides which, if you point out the truth, a mojority of people might want the UK to come out, and that's not what we want down in Islington by any means, it would make life a little bit irritating; employing doublethink is sooo uncomfortable."

Anonymous said...

@Woodsy42

Unssen authority.
Perhaps this one ?
Who knows ?

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/11/conspiracy-theories.html

TomTom said...

1641 is the year it all began.....and it looks as if our generation will have to remove tyrants from office.....it looks as if the electoral route is being closed off permanently.

Witterings from Witney said...

Anonymous (not sure if it is the same anon or not),

Agree and thanks for the spot which I intend reposting.

Tom Tom,

agreed. Don't know about you but I have already 'earmarked' the lampposts, just got to get enough hemp!

IanPJ said...

Note: Hemp is a sustainable product, and can be used again and again..