Showing posts with label EU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EU. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Monday, 24 October 2011
OPINION: Are we heading for a UK revolution?
As Bob Dylan sang: The times they are a'changing!
Most democracies evolve, often very slowly, over hundreds of years. In the UK there are signs that the need and desire for change is accelerating.
1. Earlier this year, we had a referendum about a new voting system (it failed but it was only the second referendum in the history of the UK).
2. Today, MPs will debate calls for another referendum, this time about membership of the EU, brought about because 100,000 people signed an e-petition.
3. For 10 days protestors have been camped outside St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London making their voice heard on issues including corporate greed, banking dishonesty and societal inequalities.
These are just three examples of the political balance being edged slightly away from its historical roots.
There's always been protests and marches but the past decade has seen a million or more on the streets of London to oppose the war in Iraq - it could be argued that, ultimately, this lead to Tony Blair's downfall. Other huge marches have happened about issues such as fox hunting.
And then there were the riots of summer 2011; a 5-day orgy of anarchy in some areas, the police ineffectual against seemingly organised gangs whose behaviour "inspired" a swathe of lawlessness.
Is this all just a blip - the proles rattling the cage of those who truly rule - or is this something more significant?
In the UK we were the first major nation to have a revolution. More than a century before the French or Americans ditched their monarchy we had the English Civil War and over a decade as a republic. Sadly, it was a false dawn and we had the Restoration which returned everything to its previous status and with bells on!
This isn't just an anti-monarchy rant. They are just the figurehead that highlights the inequalities in society. There is a wider "elite" that keeps power and privilege in their grubby hands whilst keeping the rest of us very much in our place.
It's nearly 100 years since the Russians got rid of the Czars but it would be wrong to suggest their troubled century has given everyone their fair share.
The UK government (and opposition) makes great efforts to highlight our great "democracy" - but it's a token democracy with whip-controlled MPs doing exactly what their pay-masters tell them (most of the time!).
Next year will see both the Olympic Games come to London and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The government will be keen to make the Olympics the "people's games" but
they will have a bigger problem celebrating Liz Windsor's jubilee while there are families struggling to put food on their kids' plates and keep their houses warm.
Maybe #OccupyLSX should have an annexe set up outside Buck House, or any of the other castles and homes we, as a nation, loan to our monarch for free?
Maybe we need marches in every city around the country demanding a new Britain with a new constitution, a new bill of rights and an end to the corruption and privilege that has been the roadblock preventing the UK from being a truly civilised and democratic nation.
The problem is the majority of the population are too apathetic - or is that just plain pathetic.
The time has come for a new start. 2012 could be that be start - the tipping point when the UK actually becomes a democracy.
Most democracies evolve, often very slowly, over hundreds of years. In the UK there are signs that the need and desire for change is accelerating.
1. Earlier this year, we had a referendum about a new voting system (it failed but it was only the second referendum in the history of the UK).
2. Today, MPs will debate calls for another referendum, this time about membership of the EU, brought about because 100,000 people signed an e-petition.
3. For 10 days protestors have been camped outside St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London making their voice heard on issues including corporate greed, banking dishonesty and societal inequalities.
These are just three examples of the political balance being edged slightly away from its historical roots.
There's always been protests and marches but the past decade has seen a million or more on the streets of London to oppose the war in Iraq - it could be argued that, ultimately, this lead to Tony Blair's downfall. Other huge marches have happened about issues such as fox hunting.
And then there were the riots of summer 2011; a 5-day orgy of anarchy in some areas, the police ineffectual against seemingly organised gangs whose behaviour "inspired" a swathe of lawlessness.
Is this all just a blip - the proles rattling the cage of those who truly rule - or is this something more significant?
In the UK we were the first major nation to have a revolution. More than a century before the French or Americans ditched their monarchy we had the English Civil War and over a decade as a republic. Sadly, it was a false dawn and we had the Restoration which returned everything to its previous status and with bells on!
This isn't just an anti-monarchy rant. They are just the figurehead that highlights the inequalities in society. There is a wider "elite" that keeps power and privilege in their grubby hands whilst keeping the rest of us very much in our place.
It's nearly 100 years since the Russians got rid of the Czars but it would be wrong to suggest their troubled century has given everyone their fair share.
The UK government (and opposition) makes great efforts to highlight our great "democracy" - but it's a token democracy with whip-controlled MPs doing exactly what their pay-masters tell them (most of the time!).
Next year will see both the Olympic Games come to London and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The government will be keen to make the Olympics the "people's games" but
they will have a bigger problem celebrating Liz Windsor's jubilee while there are families struggling to put food on their kids' plates and keep their houses warm.
Maybe #OccupyLSX should have an annexe set up outside Buck House, or any of the other castles and homes we, as a nation, loan to our monarch for free?
Maybe we need marches in every city around the country demanding a new Britain with a new constitution, a new bill of rights and an end to the corruption and privilege that has been the roadblock preventing the UK from being a truly civilised and democratic nation.
The problem is the majority of the population are too apathetic - or is that just plain pathetic.
The time has come for a new start. 2012 could be that be start - the tipping point when the UK actually becomes a democracy.
Let's stop cow-towing to the Windsors and their cronies.
Let's stop putting up with a parliamentary democracy that isn't very democratic.
Let's stop accepting the inequalities in society and give everyone the equality of opportunbity they deserve and should be their right at birth.
We need a new beginning - a nation of rights AND responsibilities, where anyone COULD be Head of State, where everyone can earn a good living for themselves and their family and where nobody goes cold or hungry.
Let's stop letting those in power manipulate the rest of us for their benefit and let's take control.
Vive la Revolution!
OPINION: What do Tory MPs and Jockeys have in common?
No, it's not a joke! In the past week both Tory MPs (possibly a few Labour ones too) and horse racing jockeys have both had problems with whips - but not, for once, revelations in the tabloids about S&M parties.
I am against both type of whips - they are both wrong and have no place in a civilised and modern society.
MPs
Today, MPs from all three of the biggest parties in the House of Commons will be under a three-line whip to follow the orders of their party leadership; they will be told they HAVE to vote against the motion calling for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.
Now don't get me wrong - I will be by happy if this moronic and xenophobic motion is defeated in parliament later, but I am very much against party whips.
In the UK, in elections to parliament, we vote for an MP, we put a cross beside the name of the individual candidate that we feel is the best of those who have put themselves forward to represent our views, and the views of our locality, in Westminster.
We do NOT put a cross against a party name.
Parties are a very bad thing for democracy. I don't think they should exist at all. MPs should vote on their own conscience on every issue. Groupings of MPs should vary accord to the subject being discussed and not simply to look after party interests and seek personal promotions (or keep affairs quiet).
There are anti-EU MPs in both the Conservatives and Labour - they should be able to vote together. When it comes to taxation they might vote differently.
Politics needs to be returned to principles and removed from the hands of the party whips.
Jockeys
Following a lengthy consultation, the horse racing authorities introduced new rules to limit the use of the whip in races and to increase penalties for those jockeys who broke those rules. When the new rules were introduced a large number of jockeys found themselves breaking the rules and in receipt of fines and bans.
Now, jockeys are not the brightest of people - an unscientific sample from those who have been interviewed on the media in the past week suggests they are mostly a bit thick.
It seems jockeys struggled counting to 7, or to notice the furlong marker - imagine that when driving on the road: "Sorry officer, I didn't notice the STOP sign!"... you'd expect a fine and posts on your license.
The authorities reviewed and watered down the regulations and jockeys, for now, are happier. Maybe they now have a numeracy hour in the weigh-in room at meetings to help them count?
The problem with the amended rules is that jockey's wallets are now being hit less than the horses.
Whipping an animal is just wrong.
To me there is a solution; I'd ban horse racing. It is animal abuse. Sadly that won't happen yet, but I hope the public wake up soon to the atrocities of horse racing - hundreds of horses killed each year because they don't run fast enough, awful injuries in races, etc.
I am against both type of whips - they are both wrong and have no place in a civilised and modern society.
MPs
Today, MPs from all three of the biggest parties in the House of Commons will be under a three-line whip to follow the orders of their party leadership; they will be told they HAVE to vote against the motion calling for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.
Now don't get me wrong - I will be by happy if this moronic and xenophobic motion is defeated in parliament later, but I am very much against party whips.
In the UK, in elections to parliament, we vote for an MP, we put a cross beside the name of the individual candidate that we feel is the best of those who have put themselves forward to represent our views, and the views of our locality, in Westminster.
We do NOT put a cross against a party name.
Parties are a very bad thing for democracy. I don't think they should exist at all. MPs should vote on their own conscience on every issue. Groupings of MPs should vary accord to the subject being discussed and not simply to look after party interests and seek personal promotions (or keep affairs quiet).
There are anti-EU MPs in both the Conservatives and Labour - they should be able to vote together. When it comes to taxation they might vote differently.
Politics needs to be returned to principles and removed from the hands of the party whips.
Jockeys
Following a lengthy consultation, the horse racing authorities introduced new rules to limit the use of the whip in races and to increase penalties for those jockeys who broke those rules. When the new rules were introduced a large number of jockeys found themselves breaking the rules and in receipt of fines and bans.
Now, jockeys are not the brightest of people - an unscientific sample from those who have been interviewed on the media in the past week suggests they are mostly a bit thick.
It seems jockeys struggled counting to 7, or to notice the furlong marker - imagine that when driving on the road: "Sorry officer, I didn't notice the STOP sign!"... you'd expect a fine and posts on your license.
The authorities reviewed and watered down the regulations and jockeys, for now, are happier. Maybe they now have a numeracy hour in the weigh-in room at meetings to help them count?
The problem with the amended rules is that jockey's wallets are now being hit less than the horses.
Whipping an animal is just wrong.
To me there is a solution; I'd ban horse racing. It is animal abuse. Sadly that won't happen yet, but I hope the public wake up soon to the atrocities of horse racing - hundreds of horses killed each year because they don't run fast enough, awful injuries in races, etc.
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