Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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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
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Politicians
on the gravy train
Mail
Comment - October 22, 2004
How rich. On the very day an arrogant,
overweening government announces that the Black Watch
is to be sent deeper into the dangerous quagmire of Iraq
- without proper Parliamentary debate, far less a vote
- comes eye-popping evidence of the rewards on offer to
our impotent and sometimes sadly useless MPs.
They may not be much good at stopping
disastrous wars, but the certainly know how to ride the
gravy train. Yesterday's report on their perks and expenses
reveals in graphic detail how political classes live in
gold-plated affluence beyond most voter's reach.
Forget the claim that they must get by
on the backbench salary of £57,485. For most, that's
only the beginning. Leaving Ministerial pay aside, MP's
expenses add to almost £80 million/year, the equivalent
of £118,000 each.
What a world of sticky-fingered opportunity
lies behind those figures: 57p/mile car allowances, free
travel, staff allowances, office allowances, the ability
to hire relatives and pay them from the public purse and
£20,000/year extra to help out-of-town Members live
in London.
And let us never forget that they have
awarded themselves copper-bottomed pensions that their
constituents can only dream of, funded by the taxpayer.
Yet most of these same MPs approve New Labour's £5billion/year
tax raid on pension fund dividends - a stealth tax that
ruins the retirement dreams of millions.
So what is the public getting in return
for all this enforced largesse?
Quite the most depressing feature of
modern politics is the way Parliament has allowed the
PM to treat it with utter contempt, on everything from
his crass attempt to turn the Lords into a rubber stamp
to his habit of promoting unelected, unaccountable cronies.
Meanwhile, MPs had stood by as power
has steadily drained away to Brussels.
And now (apart from some mutinous protests)
they have failed pitifully to hold Mr Blair to account
for the tragedy in Iraq, despite the dodgy dossiers, the
false assurances and that demented vendetta against the
BBC for telling the truth.
Of course there are MPs in every party
- not all well-known - who work hard and conscientiously
for their constituents and the country. They deserve respect.
But sadly there are too many careerists
intent on weaselling their way into a job by toeing the
party line. We're witnessing the rise and rise of a new
breed of 'professional' politicians who have little or
no understanding of the real world.
Small wonder voters are disillusioned.
Their wishes are ignored. Their institutions are trodden
down. Their leaders lie with impunity while their elected
representatives seem interested mainly in looking after
themselves.
And the gulf between rulers and the ruled
grows wider than ever.
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Huge pay
rises, fat cat perks and a gold-plated pension. So why are most
of our MPs so useless?
by
Peter Oborne - Political Editor of The Spectator - Daily Mail,
October 22, 2004
Even
in these trouble times, when money goes so much less far than
it did, there's plenty to be done with £175,000 a year.
You can employ ten nurses in an NHS hospital, hire five new policemen,
or three head-masters of a comprehensive school. Alternatively,
you can feed, water, pay and service your average backbench British
MP.
There
are 650 of these creatures, and as figure published yesterday
revealed, collectively they set the taxpayer back around £80million
each year. Many, I would suggest, are parasites who make a mockery
of the British democratic system.
There
is a paradox at work here. Never have MPs been so well paid, had
so much administrative support or enjoyed such lavish offices.
But never havethey been held in such general contempt by the electorate
whose interests they are employed to serve.
On
one level, there is a very simple explanation for this puzzling
contrast. Power has seeped away from Parliament in the past 30
years. Much has gone to Europe, where so many decisions that affect
the lives of British citizens are made. Other powers have been
seized by judges. some have gone to the regional parliament in
Scotland and the assembly in Wales. And much of what remains has
been seized by Tony Blair centralising all major decision-making
in Downing Street.
Scandalous
New
Labour is utterly contemptuous of the House of Commons, while
Tony Blair himself votes less often there than any Prime Minister
in two centuries. This in itself is scandalous. And this week,
with the Government defying angry calls for a vote on the redeployment
of troops in Iraq, is an excellent example of the malign trend.
But
far from resisting this erosion of their powers, the majority
of British MPs have been only too happy to surrender the sovereignty
for the great institution in which they have the overwhelming
privilege to serve. They may have fewer powers now and display
a sometimes startling disinclination to use those that remain.
But one of those remaining powers is the right to vote on their
own terms and conditions. And this power they have exercised to
the full.Over
the past decade, MPs have quietly, effectively doubled their own
salaries. They have also granted themselves lavish accommodation
of a kind previously unimaginable. And they have endorsed huge
allowances for research costs.
The
effect of this self-enrichment has been nothing short of a degradation
of British democracy. It has led to the emergence of a narrow
and greedy political class. MPs of all parties have lost touch
with their constituents and ordinary life. With their large salaries
and allowances, Tory, Lib Dem and Labour MPs have far more in
common with each other than the people they are supposed to represent.
Parliament has turned into a narrow, selfish inward-looking club.
Nothing
demonstrates this more clearly than the offensivelygenerous guaranteed
pension schemes which MPs have voted for themselves. In the real
world, there is a crisis. Company pension schemes are in collapse,
while it is clear that the British state can no longer bear the
burden of paying a decent retirement wage. But as voters face
the terrifying prospect of poverty-stricken old age, MPs are laugh-ing
all the way to the bank.
Last
year, when a £25million black hole emerged in their pension
fund, MPs casually voted to pay £25million of taxpayers
money to plug it. The situation is made even more disturbing by
the fact that MPs bear a large share of the responsibility for
the pensions crisis by voting for the abolition of the tax relief
on pension funds and the introduction of pension credits.Only
a tiny number of MPs acted in a disinterested way. Iain Duncan-Smith,
the former Tory leader, acted with great honour when he voted
against the move to plug the pension fund hole. He was attacked
by fellow MPs for his pains. Perhaps none of this arrogance and
greed would matter too much if MPs actually carried out their
job properly. But they do not. Many are hardly ever in Parliament.
Shame
Remember
when intruders burst into the Commons last month to protest against
the hunting Bill? Even though this highly controversial measure
viscerally affected the lives of tens of thousands of their fellow
citizens, there were only a handful of MPs in the chamber. Worse
than their idleness is their near-total gutlessness. Scores of
Labour MPs allowed themselves to be pressurised by the Whips into
voting for the Iraq war - even though they believed it to be morally
wrong.
Such
sycophantic toeing of the party line brings shame on to those
same backbenches from which many of the greatest political campaigns
in history have been fought. A glance into British history easily
proves the point. In the 1930's, Winston Churchill waged his long,
lonely battle against appeasing the menace of Hitler from the
Tory backbenches. His income as an MP was tiny, he was deprived
of office space and there were no earnest parliamentary researchers
scuttling around him on taxpayers money.
Despite such disadvantages, he saved Britain and the world
from the menace of fascism.
In
the 19th century, William Wilberforce achieved something just
as amazing when, after a long battle in the Commons, he secured
the abolition of slavery. He, too, lacked a parliamentary office,
or any of the support the lowliest backbencher takes for granted
today.
Sheep
Modern
MPs work under terns and conditions that Wilberforce and Churchill
could only have envied. But not one of them can boast an achievement
to match even a fraction of those two great men. Life has become
so easy for them that some are happy to prostitute themselves
rather than give up their comfortable lives. Their superlative
salaries, expenses and accommodations mean that they easily fall
victim to the threats of the Whips.
It
should be stressed that among this bunch of enfeebled sheep, there
are some fine MPs to whom none of the above strictures applies.
On
the Labour side, one thinks of the integrity of Frank Field -
who spotted the looking crisis over our pensions from the outset
- or of Andrew Mackinlay, the admirable Labour MP for Thurrock
who attends to his constituents so assiduously.
The
Tories also have diligent MPs who refuse to sell their principles
down the river, such as Andrew Morrison, the member for Westbury,
whose warnings over the folly of the Iraq war have been amply
vindicated.
The
Lib Dems boast bloody-minded Norman Baker, whose eagle-eyed diligence
over the Hinduja affair brought about Peter Mandelson's second
resignation. It is only fair to record that there are scores of
MPs of similar calibre. But there are many hundreds of characters
who are not. And the tragedy is that they bring the entire parliamentary
process into disrepute. They betray not just the great institution
they serve, but our very democratic system itself.
Please
click one ot the links above to cast your vote
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Please
click one of the links above to cast your vote
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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.
