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 17/2/05
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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
Perhaps
hospitals should adopt the motto: TOUGH ON GRIME. TOUGH
ON THE CAUSES OF GRIME. Phil Musk, Godalming, Surrey - Letter to
the Daily Mail, February 28, 2005
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MRSA
Deaths Double in 4 years - Experts fear toll
is even worse
By
Julie Wheldon - Science Correspondent, Daily Mail, February 25,
2005
Deaths
involving the hospital superbug MRSA have doubled in four years,
alarming figures revealed yesterday. They shot up from 487 a year
to just under 1,000 between 1999 and 2003. The statistics also
show that in one ear - 2002/2003 - that number of MRSA deaths
rocketed by nearly 20%.
Campaigners
warned last night that the figures from the Office for National
Statistics may be only the tip of the iceberg. There are fears
that many doctors are failing to report the presence of the bug
on death certificate, meaning thousands of cases go unrecorded.
One expert last night claimed real figures could be four times
that quoted by the ONS.
It
is already known that hospital bugs, of which MRSA is one of the
most prevalent and dangerous, claim at least 5,000 lives a year
- more than are killed each year on the roads and a higher death
toll that those from ovarian cancer or leukemia. But campaigners
believe the actual death toll from all superbugs could be more
than 10,000 a year. This may be because doctors record only the
main cause of death, such as pneumonia, and not all the contributing
factors.
There
are suspicions that some could be missing it off the notes to
protect their hospital's reputation - although the ONS said it
found no evidence of this. In addition, the Tories claim that
the bug is allowed to thrive because the Government's insistence
on patient care targets means that hospitals are reluctant to
shut down infected wards.
Last
night, Dr Mark Enright, a superbug expert from the University
of Bath, said he believed the MRSA death toll was under-reported.
Dr Enright, who is a Royal Society research fellow and specialises
in the evolution and epidemiology of MRSA, said: "These figures
published today are not that surprising. The situation has still
been under-reported - the real figure could be two, three or four
times higher. It is only by noting everyone who has the illness
that we will have a truer picture of the situation."
The
National Audit Office has estimated that more than 100,000 patients
a year are infected by hospital-acquired infections of one kind
or another, from the unpleasant to the deadly. Tackling them costs
the Health Service £1 billion a year.
Barry
Cookson, of the health Protection Agency, warned last year that
the high bed occupancy rate makes it impossible to properly isolate
infected patients. Unison has also pointed out that the number
of cleaners in the NHS has been halved in the last 20 years. The
union's head of health, Karen Jennings, said: "It cannot
be a coincidence that just as the number of cases of MRSA have
gone up, so the number of cleaners employed in the NHS have gone
down."
Earlier
this month Britain's leading infection control expert Professor
Hugh Pennington condemned the state of NHS hospitals, saying:
"I have investigated slaughterhouses cleaner than some."
Simon Williams, of the Patients' Association, said: "It is
alarming to begin to see the true scale of what is going on. If
the previous MRSA figure was such a small percentage off the total
and this has now doubled, then how many people are dying from
other infections and how much higher is the 5,000 figure?"
Methicillin-resistant
staphylococcus aureus is a form of a bug commonly found on the
skin. It is resistant to most antibiotics. The ONS figures cover
cases in which MRSA was mentioned on the death certificate in
England and Wales. They show that in 1999, 51% of deaths involving
staphylococcus aureus were resistant to methicillin - a type of
antibiotic - and by 2003 this proportion had increased to 68%.
Chief
medical statistician Peter Goldblatt said: "These figures
are the most reliable we have of the assessment by doctors of
the contribution of MRSA to deaths." He admitted it can be
hard to calculate the true death toll of MRSA "It is rarely
the underlying cause of death and there is no specific code for
it in the international classes of diseases," he warned.
Michael
Howard, whose mother-in-law died from a hospital bug, said: "Florence
Nightingale said that the very first requirement in hospital is
that it should do the sick no harm. Under Mr Blair our hospitals
are failing in that most basic duty. His obsession with targets
has created a culture in which the superbug thrives. It is a fact
that doctors and nurses are prevented from closing wards they
know to be infected with the superbug because of Mr Blair's targets."
England's
chief nursing officer, Christine Beasley, defended the Government's
action on MRSA. She said: "By improving reporting of MRSA
like this it will help us identify avoidable factors."
The
Health Department said there were now minimum cleaning standards,
a Matrons' Charter spelling out powers to enforce cleanliness
plus a campaign to encourage handwashing.
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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
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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.
