Britain: A Functioning Democracy It’s Not
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Jack Delano Long stairway in mill district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1940 We at the Automatic Earth always try to steer clear of elections as much a
[See the full post at: Britain: A Functioning Democracy It’s Not]You bet. It’s like waking up and finding yourself in Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, and the only way out is through “The Castle” for which one must face “The Trial”. The presumption of ending well becomes vanishingly small, but it will make some sort of good motion picture for the survivors at the Thunderdome.
What I find astonishing is the number of blogs busy with discussions of the coming 2016 presidential elections in the U.S..
Whatever in the world can they be thinking?UKIP with the third highest percentage of votes (13%) gets one seat, Green Party with one million votes gets one seat, while the SNP with only 5% gets 56 seats. One commenter said: “Total eligible to vote in this country was 46 million, only 61.1 of those turned up to vote. Of that 61.1%, the Tories got 39.6% share which roughly equates to 11 million votes. That’s not even 1 voter in 4. No wonder they were so desperate for First Past the Post to remain!”
The media? Bought off years ago. In our last provincial election, almost everyone in the media were saying that the election was sewn up by a particular party. Over and over again I heard this. Which apparently caused many party supporters, hearing that their party was going to win anyway, to not bother going to the polls. It worked wonderfully. As they didn’t bother voting and there was a low voter turnout, the other party won. Some questioned whether the media did this on purpose.
Reposting this link as it is relates to today’s post and there was a very positive response the last time it was posted – http://www.ruleof150.net – presenting an alternative to the pseudo democracy we have at present, and a counterpoint to the malaise of our current dysfunctional system.
The BBC reports 36.9% of the vote for the Tories, 30.4% for Labour. The final BBC poll of polls gave The Tories 34% and Labour 33%. I always seem to remember opinion poll uncertainties at plus or minus 3%. So I guess the pollsters could claim to have got it right. Tories, 34% + 3% = 37%. Labour 33% – 3% = 30%. Spot on!
Of course, you’re right, it’s not a democracy. With nearly two thirds of the voters (63.1%) voting for candidates of other parties, a functioning majority for the party getting just over 1/3 of the vote is not exactly representative, is it? And how about Scotland versus the rest of the UK? How can Cameron claim to work for one Britain?
It’s a farce, but then is there a functioning democracy in any country that claims to be one? I’d be interested in examples.
The Tories are revelling in their triumph right now – the audacity of hype – but could this vicory prove to be the acme of Cameron’s reign?
Unopposed, the Bullingdon Bully Boys Club could be an even more overbearing, hubristic bunch than before. It can only go downhill from here. Austerity is set to deepen, and despite all the ‘one nation’ rhetoric, the UK economy is a still a mirage built on debt, teetering on the edge of recession.
TrevorRaymond – thank you for posting that link! I’m not finished reading it yet, but am really enjoying it. Well written.
The press is undoubtedly biased, but also I think we have to recognise that the public will always vote for the candidate with the most sociopathic character and this for the UK pretty much goes back to 1979. Anyway its probably just as well Labour didn’t get in. The housing bubble wont last forever despite the conservatives doing everything in their power to extend it and the economy and pound will certainly go into freefall at some stage over the next five years, for which the incumbents will get the blame.
The problem also is that the downtrodden don’t vote in sufficient numbers to make a difference. Its mostly the middle class and they are voting for the party that is promising them tax cuts. Also they were concerned about the focus on Scotland which would be overwhelming had Labour and the SNP governed. It seems like long term the union is in danger anyway, which is probably a good thing.
The UK also had a referendum on AV which they rejected as it appeared to be a referendum on whether you liked Nick Clegg ( the former liberal democrat) at the time. They didn’t and thus sealed their fate.
Hi Trevor, the interest asset is absolutely created along with the interest liability.
The debtor accrues the interest liability and the lender accrues the interest asset.
When a person in society sees $100 interest liability added to their credit card statement a $100 interest asset is also added to the bank’s balance sheet.
The problem is that the debtors don’t have access to the amount of money (debt receipts, actually) required to pay back their debts so, from their perspective, it appears as thought the interest is not created. I hope this helps.
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