Tagged with Democracy

The big downside of this election

ballot boxApart from the narrowness in the polling between the two main parties, the other dramatic characteristic of this election is the number of people who are profoundly disgruntled and deep-down angry at the Establishment, in which they include Labour as well as the Tories, and are likely either not to vote at all or to vote UKIP.

The reasons variously tossed around are that “they’re all the same/nothing ever gets done/there’s no point because nothing changes/I’m not voting because politics doesn’t interest me”, etc., etc. UKIP will pick up quite a number of these turned-off disenchanted – may even come second in a large number of constituencies – even though it’s led by a phoney imposter who was an investment banker and preens himself as a working class lad in a pub with a pint of beer in his hand. But despite Farage’s obvious pretentiousness and the fact that UKIP will probably end up with only a handful of seats, what that tells you is that the big parties have massively failed in the eyes of a significant and growing section of the population. So what should be our response? Continue reading →

It’s time for politicians to stop swooning before billionaires

Tony Blair and rupert murdochIf you ask people who runs Britain today, they will almost certainly focus (correctly) on the banks, media and corporate bosses, plus the police, lawyers and accountants who are their agents in protecting their supremacy. Politics and finance have become one, with business leaders trooping into No.10 as regularly as heads of state. There’s nothing so calculated to get Whitehall into top gear as the allegation that something is ‘bad for business’.

Politicians dote on business people; they swoon before billionaires like Murdoch, Branson and Green. Sometimes they appear to run after them like teens begging them to autograph their body parts (like Blair before Murdoch’s court at Hayling Island, Australia, in 1996). Since all these lords of the universe have now been humiliated by the recurring scandals of the last decade, what at this election should be the order of the hour is reining in these powers that have so besmirched the face of Britain and exerting a firm democratic imprimatur and control over their activities to change the structure of power in Britain which has been too long delayed. The politicians should take advantage of the weakening of these former oligarchs to establish a new Magna Carta. Continue reading →

Parliamentary reform should be major objective for next government

What they never told you about ParliamentParliament is currently not fit for purpose. It isn’t just the corruption – the expenses scandal, the recent Rifkind-Straw venality, the link between life peerages and party donations reported yesterday. More insidious and even more damaging is the way that Parliament presently operates fundamentally undermines any serious degree of democratic accountability. Tribalism (my party right or wrong) and careerism (keep in with the Whips if you want ministerial preferment) are rampant, and often override objective assessment of the issues. On government bills at report stage MPs frequently vote without knowing what they’re voting for, but just blindly follow the Whips. On non-government business which often reflects electors’ intense concern, the government simply ignores any vote they lose. Continue reading →

The Stansgate title should not be revived, nor the pretender “elected” to the Lords

Benn in the House of Commons, still from Last Will and Testament trailerTony Benn was devoted to his family, and so far as one could tell, it was always reciprocated at least in his lifetime. The devotion took many forms but I am concerned here with the impact of that devotion on the family’s public face and on political matters. In a family in which four generations have so far been members of parliament and a fifth looks set to follow, it would be surprising if there were not signifiant differences of opinion between them on occasion.

Tony was careful never publicly to criticise any of his family for the political views they held or advocated. Hilary Benn famously conformed to that practice by going no further than describing himself as “a Benn, but not a Bennite.” When his daughter-in-law, Nita Clarke, became Assistant Political Secretary to Tony Blair with responsibility for trade unions, Tony Benn made no public comment, which must surely have involved the suppression of regret, disappointment, even anger. I don’t know whether anything was said in private but I suspect Tony was capable of withholding criticism even in private (something my children would certainly testify is quite beyond my capability). Continue reading →

International support rolls in for workers striking for democracy in Hong Kong

2014092901355869cc2f27-0bc3-4744-b24e-f4b2b9853b451The call for a general strike in support of the democracy movement by the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) – the only independent union in China – has attracted widespread international support.

The Swire Beverages (Coca-Cola) union and the HKCTU unions of  school teachers and dockers were striking on Monday after mass civil disobedience actions had come under heavy police attack. It is said that they are being joined by other member unions.

In declaring their strike, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) said:

Hong Kong police used ruthless force to expel harmless citizens, inflicting injuries on demonstrators with the use of weapons, acting as enemies of the people”

Continue reading →