Article in TIME.com
Proportional Representation
For many, Labour was seen as the only viable opposition because of our First Past the Post anti-democratic voting system. It distorts voting decisions as the majority vote against instead of for and/or they feel so disenfranchised by the absolute meaninglessness of our democracy their vote is not cast.
I do not feel that the Conservatives represent my interests. I do not feel Labour do, either. A future election will perhaps deny the two largest and most divided parties an automatic mandate due to their gravity. I hope they become honest with themselves and both split off their extremists and then adopt a fair electoral system.
Politics is not just about being in the EU or not. People are suffering as a consequence of this Government and the PM’s own historic track record as a promoter of bigotry and indifference to the needs of the broader population. Her snap election strategy was all about the population investing in Labour as a path to get rid of her.
She does not even have a voice, just soundbites and meaningless equations to justify the wounding of our democratic life.
But neither does the leader of the Opposition. What he said is naturally “holding the Government to account”. But his take on Brexit confuses and he seems to be now having to support a policy he finds difficult. Surrendering to the wiser corners of the Labour party.
The way forward is to have a voting system that creates Governments that are truly representative of the views of people. The Referendum would have been that, if only it has been run honestly, instead it appealed to prejudice and made dreadful false promises.
No, the answer is to represent all views that find a majority or that form a meaningful coalition. The ConLib coalition was not a coalition but a bullying take down of the Liberal Democrat identity. It was no different except Nick Clegg sometimes said “no” but not always at the right time. A coalition is a round table of mutual interest. The UK has not seen one, not yet.
New Zealand and Germany have MMP (mixed member proportional) that keeps the best and most talented MPs in parliament, but also gives more seats to parties that get the votes. It works rather better than AV which Nick Clegg was given a referendum by Cameron so PR could be killed off. Nick Clegg damaged the UK by his poor political judgment. I hope he does better at Facebook.
Democracy can fail
Democracy is not a perfect method to create Governments, but when it is done right, it can prevent bad Governments from surviving.
But as a human right, as a way to run things, democracy has a fatal flaw. Despite its raw power of being able to topple a government or president overnight, it is not very efficient at making good decisions. The worst are those made by the masses, ones that matter, ones that affect multiple generations.
Important decisions are not always best left to democratic decision making, often though, it ends up being the fairest and most appropriate way to settle differences. As a body count it achieves its highest purpose; but, as an influential and collective mind, it is a poison that guarantees madness.
Democratic decisions apportion profitability or cost of land or other assets, but they do not partake in expanding capital or creating new markets, the needs of the individual include hunger and an awareness that conditions change. Democracies are driven by common values, common ground or just plain advantage. Theirs is the blunter instrument. We elect these people and they collect the votes from the opinions they spout
The needs of the few cannot dictate the experience of the many. But that is not what happens.
Empire of Dirt
Sustainability is a word that casts a political shadow, in the same dark place where “a vote for Green is a wasted” vote lives, i.e. discouraging people to take action to protect life on Earth.
Empire building takes many forms. The 20th Century saw major world powers allow mega-corporations to ruin the natural world with oil, plastic, and pollution. This Empire is self-destructive, threatening not just our future but the future of all lives and thus thousands of millions of years of evolution. How do we re-create insects? We can not. If we do not do something about pollution and the insanity of greed, there will be one less
See also: Cars are Killing us
Trump’s Wall
President Trump realises that his base do not follow logic, they follow their feelings of displacement. It is a world-class con to represent his values as anything but “elite”, his wall does not keep out criminals but it creates a barrier that makes him and other people who do not consider that it really does little to protect America or its neighbors.
Real protection comes from being smart and maintaining a strong relationship with your allies. Walls and barriers do not celebrate the American spirit of freedom.
Stupid People
“Stupid People” muttered Jeremy Corbyn. The Stupid People in the ranks of the Conservative Government rounded on him claimed he muttered “Stupid woman” directed at the Prime Minister Theresa May. You can read his lips, he said “Stupid People”. Yet many very convinced Right Wing believers were adamant that he said something he did not apologise for, that he pointed out that he would also have objected to, he is not a misogynist, and he said “Stupid People”. It was a moment of political clarity.
And the media frenzy was about the question of what he said rather than why he said it. Shortly after this indicative event, Gatwick Airport was closed down due to the use of drones allegedly. How were these two events related?
This Tory Government has been so focused on their core policy of austerity, and implementing an invalid referendum to break the UK away from the EU. Their negotiations have been lamentably awful. The Prime Minister took charge of the negotiations and got a deal with the EU, but will not let Parliament vote on it because it will lose. Now she is using the threat of reaching no-deal and causing economic and political collapse as a lever to ensure her deal gets approved. Under the conditions of austerity, the UK has seen a terrible catastrophe when Grenfell Tower caught fire and due to ridiculous regulations the building was clad unsafely, and 72 people died. There were no sprinklers, there was one fire exit and the fire brigade could not control the blaze. Under conditions of austerity, the Crossrail project has gone ahead, the largest most significant project but it has overrun its completion date by a year and several billion pounds. Under austerity, local councils have been decimated and local services have suffered. Under the guidance of the Transport Minister, a smug and awful Chris Grayling, there has been chaos on the railways, including strikes and an timetable train that was not planned correctly, causing billions wasted in business. Under this Government, retail has gone to the wall. There is simply no actual intelligence in the Government’s planning. China, in the meantime, has a thriving economy, so it can be done.
Jeremy Corbyn was right, this Government is comprised of Stupid People. Worse than fiddling while Rome burns, this Government is plotting with PR to actually make conditions for its citizens worse and appeasing the ultra Right Wing who gathered terrible momentum, starting with the murder of MP Jo Cox.
And now Gatwick has been buzzed by drones, so this stupid government send in the Army! Over 4 days, they have demonstrated how a lack of Government planning and spending cripples them. They can not find the person controlling these drones! They can not even shoot them down.
150,000 citizens with a ruined holiday and countless business losses is the cost. This Government has wasted billions and cost the UK many thousands of lives by their negligence to pursue a policy to turn the UK into a subsidiary of Trump’s America with ultra low-taxes. All so the UK is not subject to tax haven regulations to be brought in by the EU just after the date that Britain is set to crash out of the EU.
Stupid People in Government. Stupid People who voted for them.
Air pollution
The WHO now see air pollution as the new tobacco. That is a strange word, “new”. It is not new that people object to air pollution and it is certainly not new that excessive poisons in our atmosphere is nothing but a crime against humanity.
The Arms Trade
The arms trade is responsible for the deaths of millions of people. The world’s leading arms dealers are therefore responsible for the arming of those who have money to spend, authoritarian oil countries are there to be drained of cash.
War is a tragic error in values. It used to be the armies that would draw up and one would be defeated and the victors return home or invade the other’s lands.
These modern days, the billions spent to defend or attack end up destroying one or several civilisations. Is this a result of the world’s globalised economy, or the sudden breakout of nationalism: the funding of the the gross waste of the economically fixated old-style economics dominant in the right-wing governments of the UK and USA at this time. Two very indebted nations. They rely on the income from nation building after the arms trade has destroyed an enemy.
The consumption of humanity for economic reasons or other abstracts has resulted in more death, destruction and rebuilding. Does this offer wealth investment opportunities gaining access to contracts that would not exist without the convincing gravity of a war. Such spending in peace time is rejected but when funds are denied to local councils, education and health, when the government is hostile to immigrant labour, the structure that builds tomorrow’s growth is undermined. We become a nation of tax dodging owners of apparent wealth.
Now we can even fight wars remotely. If this suffering is the engine of economic success, there is something very wrong with our fundamental philiosophy. We claim capitalism is brilliant, and yet the governments of two of the most capitalistic countries in the world are so severely in debt. In Trump’s America, end days are upon us, we may as well go out with a bang than wimpering on.
The Fiendish and Evil destruction of democratic process
The Government minister for Brexit has asked for a rule change to democratic process such that Parliament can’t amend the deal that Theresa May has cobbled together, but could reject it (and thus enforce a no deal condition).
This is another significant day that the Government tries to destroy our democratic framework and remove scrutiny for its imbalanced approach. Of course Parliament can change the process if it is a choice between damaging our economic and political clout in the world and complete dismal failure.
There is another choice. Put the final decision parliament can come up with and compare it with the status quo. Only then will a proper referendum without any propaganda establish any democratic legitimacy for this shallow attempt to highjack process and destroy the ability of the Parliament to correct the course of a government that is dead set on ruining the lives of millions.
They are so riveted to their negotiating strategy which is unfortunate as they have little skill in creating a negotiable position. The Government has failed to notice that theirs is the act of democratic destruction that will take decades or even wars to amend?
No, full power to Parliament to review, amend or reject the terms the Government propose to exit the EU or do not exit the EU. No deal is not an option and should not be considered.
We run a trade deficit with the EU because we import more because they make things our society depends upon, like healthy vegetables and very well made cars. We export more to the rest of the world because of our weapon sales to Saudi Arabia (now that we have sold our chip making powerhouse, we protect our weapons industry? Is that the plan? Our exports are mainly services, will that be affected by leaving the EU?
The End of Empire
It seems inevitable that a once too proud empire would shed its client states like old skin. The UK is the rump of a spent empire that is trying to protect its old-money rather than using it to make new wealth. What it is not noticing is that its fear of the other will continue to extend to whatever it at its event horizon or boundary of its awareness. It seems that Brexit is designed to continue this process of self-destruction.
The reason it has to be like this is the drives inherent in the conservation of wealth and domination. The lesson of literature is that leaders with too much power corrupt into wraiths frail and afraid as the anyone that they are. The media writes “how history will remember” a world leader as a future judgement, the last word, the dying insult. Which side of history will a leader end up on? Will it be to have their likeness carved into a mountain, or to be forgotten or reviled?
Not that history matters. Except if we can learn from it. And if the riches of the powerful may fuel corruption, the ravages of poverty do not grant inherent grace. The person at the centre of a myth is not necessary the main protagonist but the one with the best story.
Brazil – the film by Terry Gilliam should have been the salutary lesson. As a fiefdom of the great consumer America, we will become their administration, their slaves in civic obscurity as they enforce a red tape emporium of wonder upon our hapless souls.
Big mistake, Mrs May. Big mistake.
The EU is more liberal than the States. Exporting our souls may make us the cheapest source of quality labour to an overheating economy, but there are other things to consider.
We would have been wise to allow more generations of integration with our brilliant neighbours, instead we do not know the thousand year headache of administrative compliance that awaits us!
Or, we could do the wise thing, and let the people decide their fate.
Continued Brexit – the EU accept whatever deal the Government can agree on with a 100% risk of the firestorm that would be hard Brexit if the EU will not agree to it.
or
Continued EU Membership: Cancel the Article 50 letter and agree to remain in the EU being at the top table in actively demanding new rules to benefit all, so that while people’s rights are more universally respected an emphasis on building the wealth of each region by shared efficiencies of the whole commercial effort.