Silent
Majority Speaks
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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700,000
pupils a year play truant
Despite
Labour's eight year blitz costing £1billion
By
Laura Clark, Education Reporter - Daily Mail, April 27, 2005
A
record 700,000 secondary school pupils are skipping lessons each
year - despite an eight-year truancy blitz costing almost £1billion.
Unauthorized absences from school have gone up by 10% in the past
year alone, figures released yesterday by the Tories show. Between
them, truanting pupils missed more than 5.3million days of lessons
in 2003/04. That is the same as saying all secondary pupils in
a city the size of Liverpool received no education during that
time.
Losers
in class warfare
by
Peter Patterson - Daily Mail, April 28, 2005
When
mines are planted in the path of army convoys or car bombs
target Iraqi policemen going to work, U.S. and British
soldiers conduct sweeps of suspected terrorist hideouts,
sending in jets or helicopters to flush them out. Military
have a phrase for such activities: 'low-intensity warfare'.
Educationalists
have a similar phrase for the cacophony of noise that
rends the air in many of Britain's classrooms, with pupils
fighting each other, objects being thrown about, food
and drink being consumed during lessons, mobile phones
ringing and children cursing, physically attacking their
teachers.
This
is officially known as 'low-level disruption'.
In
both instances, what's going on is far more damaging than
either of these euphemisms suggests. Since we're in an
election, voters are bombarded with at least two different
pictures of life in our schools.
To
Tories, classrooms are too often battlefields where children
are prevented from learning by the yobbish behaviour of
their fellows, and teachers live in fear of violent parents
bursting into the classroom to attack them, or of being
prosecuted for defending themselves against thuggish children.
The Tory solution is to give more power and independence
to headteachers.
Labour
by contrast presents an onward, upward picture of unstoppable
educational progress in soon-to-be-renovated buildings,
of pupils accumulating ever-higher GCSE and A-level grades,
and the alumni of the lowliest inner-city comprehensive
about to storm the gates of Oxford and Cambridge.
If
pupil disruption is a problem their answer is to attach
260 policemen full-time (so far) to problem schools. Classroom
Chaos, an independent documentary by Roger Graef - no
friend to Tories - last night presented a grim portrait
of many of our schools.
Sylvia
Thomas (a pseudonym, she doesn't want to be blackballed)a
former teacher, returns to the profession after a 30-year
absence, armed with hidden cameras. Working as a supply
teacher, her's was a hair-raising account of what goes
on in a variety of randomly selected schools in London
and the North of England.
She
experienced aggressive behaviour by children, foul language,
widespread indiscipline, a constant barrage of noise in
the classroom, and in one instance the use of computers
to access pornography. All this, she concluded made teaching
all but impossible.
Consultations
with full-time teachers confirmed that this was not just
the kind of treatment faced by supply teachers, with whom
children will often take liberties, exploiting their lack
of knowledge of the ways of a particular school. After
her first day of teaching and secret filming, Sylvia arrived
home in tears, beginning to doubt her own proficiency
as a teacher. In fact, she'd never lost touch with her
profession, having moved into educational radio and TV
in the intervening years.
As
she worked in more and more of today's schools, however,
she came to realise that the balance of power has swung
away from teachers to pupils - 'and they know it'. Most
of her time during the school day, she said, was concerned
not with teaching but with crowd control.
Deliberate
disruption of lessons, children walking in and out of
the classroom, were commonplace. When a disruptive boy
was suspended for striking a teacher, he returned the
next day and there, in the classroom, beat up another
boy. At one school, Ms Thomas felt she had to laugh: the
Ofsted inspectors were crawling all over the premises
on their annual inspection and must, she thought, have
heard the din for the chaotic classrooms.
But
their attention was focussed on whether targets had been
met, and the mountain of paperwork teachers are required
to prepare. Confronted by the possibility that she, an
elderly woman, might have to restrain a powerful 15-year-old
from coming into her class without permission, Ms Thomas
pondered the regulations.
'Reasonable
restraint is allowed in dealing with a disturbance in
the classroom, pupils fighting each other, or damaging
property, she read. 'I've witnessed all these and never
know how to act on the words,' she said. 'In the heat
of a situation, who's going to be able to consult a lawyer?'
To
balance her alarming portrait of British schooling, Ms
Thomas ended her programme by showing us a London Comprehensive,
the Sir John Cass's Foundation and Red Coat School, with
a head who has turned his school round with a regime of
disciple and respect.]
'How
did they do it?' she asked with something approaching
amazement. My answer would be that in my day it was use
of the cane
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The shocking scale of the problem became clear after it emerged
the Government poured £885million into measures to cut truancy.
But while absences approved by parents have fallen, truancy levels
- based on the number of half-day sessions missed - remain high.
The
Conservatives used the latest statistics from the Department for
Education and Skills, published last autumn, for their analysis.
They found 696,600 secondary school pupils missed classes last
year - up from 631,669 in 2002/03 and the highest figure since
Labour came to power.
On
average, a truant skipped eight days of school, although a hard-core
of around 60,000 was absent for at least five weeks. Children
are also treated as truants if taken to holiday during term-time
without the head teacher's consent.
In
total, 5.32million teaching days were lost nationwide to truancy
- equivalent to 28,014 years. Birmingham had the highest level
in the country, with a total of 854.3 lost years.
Initially,
Ministers vowed to slash unauthorised absences by a third by 2002,
but were forced to scale back the target and then said they wanted
to cut truancy by 10% by 2004. Yet this more modest goal was also
missed, despite cash being doled out for a range of schemes. Among
these were 'truancy sweeps' to spot pupils skipping classes and
awards of £10,000 for schools with the biggest improvements
in attendance.
Ministers
have also encouraged schools to bring in swipe-card registration
systems which alert teachers when a child fails to turn up. Tougher
penalties have been introduced to punish the parents of persistent
offenders.
For
example, head-teachers can issue on-the-spot fines to parents.
If paid within 28 days, the fine is £50, but rises to £100
if not paid until between 28 and 42 days. Parents refusing to
pay face prosecution and even jail.
Tory
education spokesman Tim Collins said: "After countless initiatives
and millions of pounds spent, the number of pupils truanting is
actually up. The next Conservative government will give head teachers
and their profession colleagues the responsibility and resources
to draw up challenging lessons and courses that will engage children
of all ages and abilities."
A
Labour spokesman pointed out that absences authorised by parents
had fallen since it came to power. This meant that overall attendance
levels, including authorised and unauthorised absences, were at
'record levels', adding: "Our behaviour improvement programme,
which focusses on 126 secondary schools with the highest truancy
levels, has cut truancy by 17% at these schools since it started
in September 2002."
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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.
If you have suggestions
for additional subjects, or material to include in the pages linked
to the subjects listed, please contact
the webmaster.
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