Working Against Democracy...

There are several elements to this blog, so do please bear with me.

First off, lets state some political tenets that should be enshrined in UK democracy.

The first is that all political representatives (MPs) should be elected and not appointed. They should declare any and all items that could affect their impartiality so that electors can take a view as to whether they are fit to be voted for. Being a member of a party implies a certain partiality. Being a member or benefitting from certain lobby groups does the same. Being a member of a group that seeks to remain hiden should be made illegal. Whether it's the Masons or Common Purpose, the Scouts or Amateur Dramatic Society, it should be declared.

The second is that an unbiased house of Lords should scrutinise the Commons to guard against excesses of power and ensure democracy is fulfilled. The Lords, athough appointed should bear in mind the will of the people where indicated. Either by supporting the manifesto of a duly elected political party, or by respecting the democratic vote in a referendum of the people.

The third is that the population should be free to criticise their represenatives and as part of that process should be able to investingate what their MP is doing. The public should have the right to ask questions of their representative and there should be an assumption that questions must be answered honestly. Leading on from that, the press should be independent, free and unfettered and able to investigate politicians and publish any findings. The public have a right to know what their representative is up to at all times.

Finally, the courts, judicial system and Police Force should be completely independent of politicians and should work for the benefit of all, with impartiality. The courts should uphold the law without fear nor favour. The Police are the public, granted special powers by the good will of the people. They do not have special powers granted by any other means.

Given all of the above (and by no mans have I covered everything), you can understand that anything that work against them is anti-democratic.

For instance, The EU: give that none of the members of the EU commission, the body that has all the real power is comprised of appointed, not elected technocrats. This is exactly the reason I voted to leave. It's bad enough that they expect payment from us (effectively a tax), but when a body like the EU comissions starts to talk about taking all tax-raising powers away from democratically elected governments, then for me the alarm bells ring. How dare they impose those powers without some trade-off in the form of increased democracy?

Hopefully the EU becomes irrelevant in the UK thanks to Brexit, although there are those in government that are working against the democratic will of the people. Like in the house of Lords. The Lords are there to scrutinise government legislation, they are not there to thwart the will of the people. If they continue to vote against Brexit, there will be a reckoning.

The Leveson inquiry and the resultant limits on the press are worrying. Impress, the body that has been set up to regulate the press wants papers and other outlets to sign up to it's regulatory framework. I'm sure it won't be long before other bastions of free speech including blogs like this come under the remit of it's control.

Make no mistake Impress and any other attempt to control free speech is working against democracy. We need the freedom to take the piss out of politicians, or enlighten the public when they do something dodgy. We needs a press free from any form of control.

And before anyone whinges at me, I've been a whisker away from tabloid stories on a couple of occasions. One was put to bed after a quiet word by the MOD. Not involving me directly, but I was on the periphery. A second time involved a friend of mine in an er, "alternative" culture. I wasn't nice watching the things that happened to her and the fact her career and livelyhood were destroyed.

The fact the Police and Judiciery are straying from their remit to be impartial and especially the Police are moving into political territory are worrying. When the Police impose limits on speech and the judiciary back them up, there is a problem. The rules on speech are wolly at best and open to interpretation, interpretation that the Police should not be the arbiters of. I mean, a few crass comments on Social media should not become a hate crime. And as successive governments impose wooly legislation and the Police and Courts suffer from mission creep and use those laws for things they were never intended for, we have a biased and uncontrolled Police and an attack on free speech.

But take all of these together, there is a very real threat to democracy. Without the freedom of speech, without an independent and impartial upper house, without a free press to inform us, we are in danger of losing the freedoms and democratic accountability that out forefathers worked so hard  against the elite to win.