Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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Come
back Gilligan, all is forgiven. Penny Young, Diss, Norfolk,
to The Guardian, February 24, 2005
Spin,
not face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the
Government's chosen method of communication. Ordinary
people are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question
which throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member
might reveal himself or herself to be a human being like
us, and not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she
might tell the truth. Ann Leslie - Daily
Mail, September 16, 2004
Power
cut, please
Labour's
pollsters have Tony Blair running scared, because they have
informed him that if turnout at the next election is below
50%, the result will be a hung parliament. This would be
good news for those of us who, viewing the damage inflicted
by recent governments, would like nothing better than a
Parliament powerless to do anything. Letter from Ron
Phillips, London W14 - Daily Mail, February 17, 2005
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Tony
Blair's pledge cards made no mention of pensioners. Perhaps
they're the jokers. Letter to the Daily Mail from Brian
Green, Daventry, Northants - February 22, 2005
The
Guardian's Polly Toynbee says 'a profoundly nasty streak'
among voters worried about poverty, crime and immigration
might cause them to vote against the Government. Isn't
it time we replaced the present electorate with one more
to Polly's liking? Ephraim Hardcastle, Daily Mail,
February 24, 2005
Back
to the future
'Forward
not Back' is quite wrong: we must go back - back to clean
hospitals with more medical staff and fewer managers;
back to education with proven standards.
Back
to police on the street and solving crime; back to increased
employment in industry, back to ministers who stand up
for this country and back to democratic government. Then,
perhaps, we can move forward. Letter from S, M. Butler,
Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex - Daily Mail, March 23, 2005
Virtues
of a secret ballot
Sir
- Concerning postal votes (report Mar 23) what is the
first principle of a democratic political vote? Answer:
THE SECRET BALLOT.
It
is obvious that a postal ballot is only as secret as the
moral strength of the voter. With the infinite propaganda
powers of today's electronic media, it is frighteningly
easy for devious politicians to promote politically correct
or "cool" or, most wickedly, "honest and
transparent" voting patterns, where someone failing
to vote "with his/her group" must "have
something to hide".
Postal
voting should, at best, be allowable only to persons who
are required to be stationed away from their constituency
on government business. A few temporary disfranchisements
may result, but nothing is perfect.
Letter from J. B. Lewis, Bognor Regis, West Sussex - The
Daily Telegraph, March 25, 2005
SIR
- Why on earth are people still insisting on voting for
the Labour Party this May 2005. It has lied and cheated
the public again and again during the Iraq war, immigration,
violent crime and hospital waiting list figures. It has
introduced stealth taxes and even been caught rigging
the postal voting system. To the Editor, Daily Telegraph,
from Philip Priestley, High Wycombe, Bucks. April 19,
2005
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Shamed
by Blair
Mr
Blair says that instead of questioning his integrity we
should be asking if the invasion of Iraq was right. What
reaction does he expect from those of us who were in favour
of the invasion of Iraq all along? Does he seriously imagine
we believe in his integrity?
Those
of us who supported the war have all the more reason to
despise a Prime Minister who by his lies has discredited
the case for firmness against out enemies.
Letter
from Alan Pillinger, Rome, Italy - Daily Mail, April 29,
2005
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The
King of Duplicity
Like
millions, Max Hastings welcomed New Labour's victory 8 years ago.
Today, he argues, Tony Blair has been corrupted by power in a
way unmatched by any Premier of modern times. So what does this
say about a nation set to re-elect him?
Saturday
Essay by Max Hastings - Daily Mail, April 30, 2005
Aldous
Huxley's Brave New World, written in 1932, is now an unfashionable
novel. But this election campaign puts it into mind. In Huxley's
nightmare universe of the future, human discontent is kept at
bay by doses of the drug 'soma', which lulls all cares. Huxley's
robotically conditioned characters talked of going on 'soma holidays',
narcotic escapes from reality.
Show
your contempt Make sure you vote
says
Simon Heffer - Daily Mail - April 30, 2005
Has
there ever been an election campaign in which the most
important people - the voters - have been treated with
such contempt? Senior politicians, especially those from
the Labour Party, have campaigned in a sanitised way with
a friendly rent-a-mob in tow, insulating them as far as
possible from the electorate and its concerns. Public
meetings are a thing of the past and so is canvassing.
Only in marginal seats is any effort being made to woo
voters properly.
It
is no wonder that about 40% of the public cannot be bothered
to vote. I don't condone it, but can't blame them. It's
tempting, after all, to conclude that the Government may
be a dishonest, incompetent, wasteful, corrupt, patronising
bunch of creeps (which would be right), but that no one
else could do any better.
And
after so cautious and lopsided a campaign by the Conservatives
and such an opportunist, self-righteous and intellectually
bankrupt effort by the LibDems, it's easy to see why millions
of voters might take that view.
However,
we all must be aware of a fundamental truth. If you don't
vote at all, you will reduce the chances of removing one
of the worst governments in British history. You may think
the other parties are awful, but are they really as awful
as Blair's Labour, rotted as it is in lies, gerrymandering
and oppressive state control of individuals?
Can
you face waking up next Friday to four more years of being
deceived, patronised, insulted and exploited, and having
our precious values and institutions systematically wrecked?
Unless
your Tory candidate is an absolute stinker or a euro-maniac,
you should vote Conservative. In seats where the Tories
are in third place, and their candidate hasn't a hope
of victory, I urge people to hold their noses and vote
Lib Dem.
If
no other party can overhaul Labour nationally - and I
fear that is so - we can, at least, hope to considerably
reduce the majority. It may be unlikely, but a hung Parliament
and an early second election would at least offer some
hope of a brighter future.
And
that is the best we can hope for.
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Back
in our own times, much of the British electorate seem astonishingly
willing to continue their long political 'soma holiday' through
next Thursday. Content with material well-being, they appear unprepared
to think much about anything save they they are enjoying life,
still some thousands off their credit limits, and the garden is
looking nice for the time of year, thank you very much. They will
thus reelect Tony Blair.
This
week's revelations about Blair's shameless distortion of the legal
advice about war with Iraq completes a prosecution case that was
already devastating. He has performed actions as Britain's prime
minister which, if transferred to any other sphere of life, would
cost him a custodial sentence for fraud.
Those
voters satisfied that the economy prospers, and there is lots
of money about, refuse to heed the fact that Labour's leader has
been exposed as a serial deceiver. Put this point to Mr Jones
in Bristol or Sheffield and he might glance up from the telly
and shrug: "What do you expect? All politicians are the same.
It wouldn't be any different under Howard or Kennedy."
Mr
Jones believes that under the Tories or LibDems, petrol prices
would stay high, council tax go up, Rover go down, asylum seekers
come in, serial offenders let out - under Michael Howard anyway
- British troops would be committed to #Texan adventures abroad.
Of
course, it is true that all parties at all elections conduct auctions
of promises, most of which go unfulfilled. But after eight years
of any government, it is right to judge its history, not its aspirations.
It was because the Tory record had become so tarnished that the
country ejected john Major in 1997.
I
was among those who thought that a just verdict. The Government's
refusal to address the plight of the public services had become
shameful. Civil war on Europe paralysed the Conservative Party.
It was settlement day for years of failures and fiascos - the
early Nineties recession prominent among them. Tories had run
out of steam and ideas.
Today,
however, it is Tony Blair's turn to face a similar reckoning,
which invites an equally harsh verdict. This is the Blair who
said at the beginning: "We in government have to be purer
than pure."
Some
of us really did believe that he was a man of integrity as well
as rhetoric, of honesty as well as moderation. The process of
discovering otherwise has been long and painful. The Prime Minister
offering himself for re-election next Thursday looks a very different
man from the one who stood like John the Baptist on the doorstep
of Downing Street the morning after the 1997 poll triumph.
Today's
Tony Blair is the man who accepted cash for his party for continuing
to allow tobacco advertising on racing cars, whose government
has consistently deceived the public about NHS waiting lists,
who pardons and promotes his personal Iagos (Peter Mandelson and
Alastair Campbell) even when the stage is strewn with the flotsam
of their deceits.
This
country is now an elective dictatorship
Here
is the Blair who promised more open government, yet goes to ever
more ruthless lengths to conceal its secrets,; who seized more
power than any in history for Whitehall, and for appointed advisers
and quangos at the expense of elected representatives.
Britain has become less of a democracy than an elective
dictatorship.
Here
is a leader who claims to respect our Armed Forces yet cut their
numbers, and who exposes to criminal prosecution the soldiers
whom he sent to Iraq. He has subverted public institutions -not
least among them the National Statistical Office - for partisan
political purposes. He identifies the interests of the state with
those of his own party, and demands that the Civil Service should
do likewise. He claims to support personal freedoms, yet has banned
fox-hunting.
He
professes to support commercial enterprise, yet has loaded it
with new taxation and regulation. He has achieved some improvement
in health care at stupendous cost to the taxpayer without addressing
structural reform.
Whatever
promises Labour's manifesto makes for the future, the party shrank
from any attempt to address the vital issue of pensions. Educational
standards have fallen, and no one is fooled by the cynical manipulation
of standards to make this seem otherwise. Rail infrastructure
has effectively been re-nationalised, to paper over disastrous
ministerial bungling.
Downing
Street has abused patronage and sold favours in a fashion that
makes Lloyd George's sale of honours seem amateurish. Prime Minister's
political creatures control government information with a ruthlessness
that would command admiration in a Balkan dictatorship. It is
sometimes suggested that the media treat politicians too harshly.
Tony Blair, however, started his premiership with a honeymoon.
Many
of us treated him with respect and even admiration. We wanted
him to succeed. We thought he was different. Blair has proved
himself different all right, but not remotely in the fashion we
supposed. He has become enthralled with power, and corrupted by
it in a fashion unmatched by any prime minister of modern times.
The
showcase of sincerity has been stripped bare
Until
the war, I continued to respect Labour's management of the economy
and to believe that this government had done some things that
needed doing for Britain. Yet in the
past three years, Blair's glittering showcase of sincerity has
been stripped bare to reveal storerooms stocked with duplicity.
It
is hard to imagine graver abuse of power than to take a nation
to war on the basis of falsehoods. For many voters like me, progressive
exposure of the truth about Iraq has been decisive in convincing
us that Blair is unfit to continue as Prime Minister.
Most
of us try to rally round when Britain looks like going to war.
Yet through the summer of 2002, my own doubts grew about what
Blair was saying and doing, in thrall to an obviously dangerous
US president. Almost weekly, Downing Street told Parliament and
the British people that no decision had been made about committing
troops in Iraq. Yet every informed American I met asserted that
Bush was set to invade Iraq and that Blair had privately assured
him of British military support.
I
wrote here in July 2002, 'It is an extremely disturbing state
of affairs that the West appears to be advancing towards this
campaign in a catatonic stupor, without any real public debate
about its objectives or their fulfillment.'
On
September 24, just after the publication of Tony Blair's notorious
dossier on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), I wrote from Washington:
"Whatever Clare Short says, or the United Nations or Uncle
Tom Cobleigh and all, America is going to invade Iraq and topple
Saddam. The Blair dossier is not evidence presented to a jury.
The British Cabinet will have no influence upon events'.
I
thought invasion was a ghastly mistake, because it was so hard
to see a happy postwar scenario. Yet I believed what Blair said
about WMD. I simply could not imagine that a British Government
would be so explicit about the threat unless it was sure.
I
still accept Lord Hutton's view that Blair did not explicitly
lie. He really believed WMD existed, as did the whole British
defence establishment. The charge against
Blair, which Hutton absurdly ignored, but which seems equally
grave, is that the WMD case was only ever a pretext to persuade
the British people to a course of action to which Blair and Bush
were secretly committed anyway.
When
the nonsense of WMD was stripped bare after the fall of Baghdad,
when resigning Robin Cook was proven to have been right and the
ruling Prime Minister utterly wrong, Blair fell back on his defence
for every mistake he has ever made.
He
said he was sincere; he believed in WMD at the time; that he was
an honest man. Yet honesty is a pitifully inadequate excuse for
a blunder as colossal as starting a war under false pretences.
Men have died- Iraqis in thousands, British troops in scores -
because Blair cherished a messianic conviction that it was his
moral duty to join Bush's crusade against Saddam. Even when all
this was exposed, when it became clear that Alastair Campbell's
presentation of the WMD case represented runaway inflation of
intelligence given to government, absolutely no one quit or was
asked to do so.
Indeed,
in a sublime act of hubris, Tony Blair promised John Scarlett,
the intelligence officer most grievously tarnished by collusion
with Campbell, to become director of Britain's Secret Service.
Tony
Blair forever forteited the trust of British people by his false
dealing over Iraq, the gravest of all his exercises in public
deceit. Yet today, he offers himself for re-election. There might
be some logic in supporting Labour next Thursday if this hope-lessly
tarred prime minister had been supplanted by Gordon Brown. Then,
at least, Labour could claim to have cleansed the stables, purged
Blair's sins.
As
it is, we are invited to support this government by the crudest
nod and wink: if we vote for tricky Tony next week, after a decent
interval we will get honest Gordon.
Labour
is conducting this election campaign like a a marathon runner
assisting round the course a man with a broken leg, or rather
a shattered image. By an extraordinary twist of fate, the leader
who was Labour's greatest asset in 1997 has today become its overwhelming
liability.
A
Labour win will send a wretched signal to the world
Yet
it is this liability who stands to re-enter Downing street and
retain power to govern us all for a further five years, unless
whim dispatches him on a pilgrimage to Lourdes or to make himself
Archbishop of Canterbury.
If
Labour achieves the victory the polls predict, the British people
will give a wretched signal to the world: we do not care what
lies we have been told, what sins have been committed by this
prime minister. We care only that the sun shines, interest rates
are low, and it will soon be time to take the boat out.
Think
of the host of government ministers forced from office in recent
years - Mandelson for his personal lies, Byers for mismanaging
the railways, Blunkett over his lover's nanny's passport, Estelle
Morris for finding education too much for her.
How
trivial their failures appear, alongside those of their leader.
If a man expects to go to prison for issuing a fraudulent prospectus
for a mere city company, what should be the judgment on one who
has launched a nation on a fraudulent war?
From
the dock, Blair cannot even claim personal penitence in mitigation.
He regrets nothing, because he is confident it is all OK with
God. This is a sorry story, and its threatened outcome reflects
sorry truths about the British electorate.
The
man who has made fools of 60 million people is confidant we shall
re-elect him, without even needing to dose us with 'soma'. And
unless there is a dramatic awakening in the next five days, the
British people will return a wholly discredited prime minister
to Downing Street.
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Tactical
Voting
As
UKIP member for several years, I believe the greatest
threat facing the British is the potential loss of our
independence to govern ourselves. Once Brussels gains
complete control, everything else we are voting for in
the coming election is academic. The real decisions will
be made in Brussels by people we can't vote out.
Much
as I support UKIP's aims, I now believe the single most
important goal for British voters is to remove Blair and
his rotten Government before they complete the process
of removing our sovereignty. Only a vote for Michael Howard
will do this - Letter to the Daily Mail from Tony Beverley,
London SW10 - April 7, 2005
Perhaps
Ann Widdecombe was right about Michael Howard, but it
should have been KNIGHT with a K, and he could have saved
us from the monsters Blair and Campbell - Letter to
the Dail Mayil from Les Fletcher, Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn
Bay, Wales - February 18, 2005
After
a clear vote against them, we still got eight non-elected
Regional Assemblies. When we vote against the EU Constitution,
we'll get them anyway. Letter from P.Cove, Aylesbury,
BUCKS.- Daily Mail, January 31, 2005
THE
TIMES slavish support for the Government worries some
members of the paper's staff, not to mention any perspicacious
readers who are left. Political editor Philip Webster
was questioned about this when he addressed colleagues
as part of an in-house 'masterclass' exercise. Small wonder.
One of his Blair-worshipping subordinates wrote a news
story yesterday poo-pooing the row over Labours anti-semitic
poster mocking Michael Howard, saying it was merely £5million
worth of 'free publicity' for the party. Ephraim Hardcastle
- Daily Mail, Febrauary 2, 2005
Hold
the front page
Further
to BBC bias (Mail), very often on BBC Breakfast and Breakfast
With Frost, coverage of the morning papers is censored.
If the front page of the Daily Mail is critical of Tony
Blair and his Soviet-style Government, it is not shown,
although the front pages of all the other newspapers are
shown. A supposedly independent broadcasting body is acting
as censor for this Government - an absolute disgrace.
Letter from Peter Fish, Chippenham, Wilts. .- Daily Mail,
February 17, 2005
SIR
- Why on earth are people still insisting on voting for
the Labour Party this May 2005. It has lied and cheated
the public again and again during the Iraq war, immigration,
violent crime and hospital waiting list figures. It has
introduced stealth taxes and even been caught rigging
the postal voting system. To the Editor, Daily Telegraph,
from Philip Priestley, High Wycombe, Bucks. April 19,
2005
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The
REAL NASTY PARTY- How
Labour is the true home of spite, bigotry and contempt for the
public
For
the health of our democracy, we, the people of the United Kingdom,
must find a way to force Mr Blair to resign
Such
defiance of the democratic process and the will of the majority
of we people of the UK, must be exposed by voters as a matter
or urgency, and not just in the two by-elections we have had this
July and the European elections in June 2004. But how can this
be done?
The
most effective way of getting our deceitful PM to resign would
be to mobilise the army of Labour MPs currently in the House of
Commons and get them to demand it, the loss of their seat to be
a penalty if they did not. All voters in Labour-held constituencies
need to write a letter along these lines to their local Labour
MPs:
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Dear
Despite
his absolute and unequivocal assurances over the past year
of the serious risk to our security of Saddam Hussein's
'weapons of mass destruction', Prime Minister Blair
has admitted, that the threat was non-existent. For that
critical error of judgement and for his gross incompetence
in handling this very important issue, I ask you to take
immediate steps to ensure that Tony Blair does the honourable
thing and resign without delay..
I
would therefore be much obliged if you would propose and
help mobilise a Parliamentary vote of 'No Confidence' in
Mr Blair which, despite Labour's huge majority, would leave
the PM with no option but to resign.
If
I get no reply to this letter, I shall assume you will continue
to support Mr Blair as our Prime Minister. In such circumstances
I shall not vote for you in the forthcoming General Election.
Signed:
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Simple,
non-violent, protest letters along these lines on a variety of
issues could be the basis for re-vitalising our democracy and
increasing voters' interest and participation in politics. Download
a printable copy of the above letter here.
There
is another way for the voice of the silent majority to be heard,
a voice that made sure broken promises would not only be revealed,
but punished in subsequent elections.
In
the year available before the General Election expected in 2005,
many topics are available as ammunition, each one asking questions.
A weapon for our purpose will be the results of Opinion Polls
in individual constituencies using ICM, NOP, Gallop, Mori
or YouGov.
Questions
suggested for this purpose are listed here.
CAST
YOUR VOTE ON A VARIETY OF OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES HERE.
Current
and prospective Parliamentary candidates of all Parties running
for election could share a platform at public forums in every
constituency. They would be presented with the results of
polls on this issue expressed by the majority of voters in that
constituency.
The candidates could be asked if their own views and that of their
Party manifesto corresponded with the polls, and if not, how they
intended to represent the will of the majority of local voters.
Local and National Press, Radio and TV coverage would be arranged
and the results published on this web site.
Here
is another powerful strategy for using your vote effectively in
the forthcoming General Election. Send your sitting and prospective
MPs a letter defining your requirements if they want your vote.
This example deals with the proposed
EU Constitutional Treaty.
Your
letters would end: "If you do not answer
this letter, I shall take it that you intend to follow the Government
line. I shall act accordingly in the forthcoming General Election.
Or
why not create a questionnaire that you send to all the candidates
in your constituency, getting them to give yes/no answers to questions
of your choice, and ending it with the same paragraph(above).
Download
a printable example of the questionnaire.
It
is high time for the people of this United Kingdom to stop allowing
themselves to be manipulated by politicians. We need our representatives
in Parliament to genuinely reflect the view of the majority in
their own constituency, even if this means going against their
personal and/or their party's policy. While they may argue their
case, hoping to change the minds of the majority in their constituency,
they should ultimately be obliged to reflect the majority view
of those who elect them.
It
will be argued by politicians of all parties that most voters
don't have the knowledge necessary to express an opinion on important
subjects at issue, and that our vote is a form of delegated democracy.
We should argue that it is their duty to ensure that we voters
do have ready access to such information as is necessary to form
an intelligent opinion. That, after all, is one main purpose of
Opposition Parties in our Parliamentary Democracy.
Most
important of all, such proceedings would rekindle in voters their
latent interest and obligation to cast their vote, knowing that
the candidate of their choice would be more likely to act in accordance
with their wishes. A much higher turnout in elections would be
the result.
Contact
your local Party Chairman. Gain his support for setting up public
forums in your constituency on these, as well as any other relevant
topics, well before the next General Election expected in 2005.
You should then, depending on the integrity of the candidate of
your choice, feel fairly certain that your view on any subject
being debated in Parliament will more accurately be reflected
by your representative in that assembly.
