Friday, December 17, 2010

Democracy in action

Another reason to stay away from Britain:
The government is attempting to pilot through legislation that would bring in five-year parliaments, due shortly in the Lords for its second reading. Ahead of this, the Lords constitution committee says in a report published today that they are "unconvinced" by the arguments for moving to a fixed-term parliament.

The group includes constitutional expert Lord Norton; former cabinet minister Lord Crickhowell; Lord Renton; Lord Powell, adviser to Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street; former Lib Dem leader in the Lords, Lord Rodgers; and the former lord chancellor Lord Irvine.
And how many of those were elected to their positions? Why, none, of course. They are political appointees, for the most part. So now they can question elected members of the House of Commons about plans to make the British elective dictatorship more like a democracy.

Fortunately for the members of the House of Lords, the British subjects of Her Majesty are utterly incapable of making rational judgments about anything that appears to be traditional. All the wigs and ermine, as well as all the faux-Mediaeval architecture (observe, if you will, the wallpaper and carpet in the office of Chris somebody the something Secretary; no, me neither) form a cone of silence around the Palace of Westminster (see: it's a Palace; it is not like any ordinary assembly). So, nothing really happens. Of course, the House of Lords now contains some eminent personages of non-British origin (or,as the locals call them, wogs) who were appointed to their positions after several years' service on Radio 4's Start the Week.

Incidentally, Andrew Marr, host of said programme, told the Cheltenham Literary Festival:
A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people.
Of course, he is quite right; for this reason, I never attend blogging conventions.

Britain, under legislative changes introduced during the premiership of Tony Blair, is a police state. However, Britain can no longer afford a police force, having spent all its money on banks and "defence".

Other features of modern Britain include TB and homophobia.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Erm, what the Lords are questioning is whether the moves actually make Britain "more like a democracy". The move to fixed-term parliaments comes with the hook of 5 year parliaments instead of the conventional 4 - so the public will have a say less often.

As unelected as the Lords are, from my years over there they usually seem to be far more on the side of public benefit and oversight than the government of the day - they wouldn't let a CERRA pass. They are much more able to look at what's for the long term good, rather than what will get them elected in an impending election. So philosophically bad, (usually) practically good, one might say.

Chris Huhne was twice nearly leader of Britain's 3rd party, that got 23% of the vote in the last election and is now part of the government. He is a fairly well-known figure in Britain, and fighting hard to get change on Climate initiatives.

I would say for all the current financial shit that Britain is in, they are no more homophobic or TB-ridden than NZ, and highly unlikely to call anyone "wogs".

From normally a quite interesting blogger, this post comes across quite ill-informed - particularly for someone who mentions the fabulous Drop The Dead Donkey in an ensuing next post...