Democracy is a great system, except that those in power do their uttermost to subvert it, circumvent it, and twist it to their own ends, and quite often succeed. Take the current state of play between the parties in Britain. In March this year the Electoral Commission recommended there should be no increase in spending limits for candidates between now and the general election on 7 May. It also proposed that there should be only an increase in spending of £2.9m for the ‘short’ 3-week campaign leading up to the election. So what did the Tories do? Ignoring the official recommendations of the Electoral Commission, they pushed through increases in permitted spending twice those proposed by the Commission. This works hugely well for them because they have amassed an electoral war chest vastly greater than Labour’s, and will now be able to turn most of it to their own unilateral advantage. Continue reading
Tagged with Electoral Malpractice
Bring back democracy to Labour’s conference and discipline corrupt party officials
Labour’s annual conference has long been a machine operation designed to showcase the Leader’s speech and to suppress any serious discussion of other controversial matters (and the Tory party conference is, if anything, even more orchestrated). It is done to convey a contented and anodyne impression for the television cameras, and the result is of course ineffably bland and boring.
The economic debate was a good example. Some 60% of the allotted time was taken up by shadow ministers like directors giving the company report to shareholders, about 10% was devoted to the moving and seconding of lengthy resolutions, and the remaining 30% to the floor. However those speakers from the floor weren’t drawn at random, they were in every single case selected beforehand.
