OPINION: Should the Bahrain Grand Prix go ahead?

The Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix is scheduled to take place in 11 days time, and, like last year when it was cancelled, the question of whether this year's race should happen has been raised.

Bahrain is a wealthy Arab state with what can reasonably called a strict and oppressive government. Last year, when peoples across North Africa and the Middle East rose up against a number of oppressive regimes as part of the Arab Spring, the Bahrain authorities crushed opposition to their leadership and, in the wake of that, and ongoing troubles, it was thought best that the race didn't happen.

Opposition groups have, over the past couple of weeks, been raising the temperature as the race date gets nearer. They would like the race to be cancelled again because, they say, human rights have not changed and the authorities are still clamping down severely on anyone found to be speaking out against the government.

Formula 1's supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, has said that the teams have a contractual duty to turn up to race but, in practically the same breath, he says he can't force them. In all likelihood a decision about the race in Bahrain will be taken this weekend at the China Grand Prix.

Yes, that's right, the China Grand Prix!

So, Formula 1 might not go to Bahrain to race because of ongoing human rights abuses but there are no calls for the race in China, the country that many consider to be the world's worse abuser of human rights, to be cancelled. After all, there's a big potential audience in China, isn't there? Formula 1 can make a ton of money there.

Formula 1 needs to look much more carefully at the countries it chooses to take races to. Yes, this is sport and not politics, but only the most naive political virgin would argue that the two aren't closely linked.

Formula 1 is an enormous cash cow - it goes it generates thousands of dollars, but, like Apple have found with the problem of workers' rights in factories making iPhones and iPads, with global wealth must come some moral responsibility.

I hope that the Bahrain Grand Prix doesn't happen, and I hope it stays off the calendar until there are sufficient positive changes happen to improve the lives of ordinary Bahraini citizens, but I hope that Formula 1 will also reconsider the morality of its races in China, the UAE, and several other countries.

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.

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!