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I have always believed that the most significant event of the 20^th Century was the First World War because it was the watershed event that changed the world order and caused major social upheaval right across the Globe. The “Flower of Europe” mown down, the Bolshevik Revolution, the ending of the ruling dynasties and the collapsing of Empires.

Whilst we often hear of the “Suffragette Movement” and votes for women, what is less talked about is that the majority of the British young men who fought and died on the Western Front also didn’t have a vote due to a lack of property qualifications.

Electoral Reform 1918 & 1928

The electoral reforms of 1918 rectified this for men and also extended the vote to women who were 30 and older, this latter was a classic “fudge”. The reality was that so many men had died, even restricting women to 30+, they still formed over 40% of the electorate, it wasn’t until 10 years later in 1928 that the age of majority for all and regardless of gender became 21 years of age.

However perhaps the most significant fact was that even as a result of the reforms of 1918 the electoral base mushroomed from around 7 million to about 21 million overnight. Subsequently and post WWII, the age of majority was lowered to 18 which combined with increasing longevity means that the electoral base has expanded dramatically.

The Establishment

However, the problem is that our democratic institutions have not adjusted themselves to cope with the increase, they are mainly stuck in a pre-1914 model and have not evolved to accommodate the increasingly diverse ‘voices’ within society which in turn leads to increasing frustration that can all too easily boil over into violence on the streets. The reaction from the “Establishment” is as ever throughout history, they seek to cling on to the past and a continuation of the existing model by any means, fair or foul and lock it in.

The classic most recent example of this was the deliberate attempt to impose the EU Constitution on all EU Citizens which both the French and Dutch had previously rejected, whilst ensuring that they were deprived of any opportunity to express their democratic views upon it. Fortunately the Irish because of their Constitution had to have a Referendum by Law and the result was that it was rejected. In International Law, this ‘Treaty’ is now dead because it had to be approved unanimously by all 27 member states but still, the “Ruling Elites – The Establishment of the EU – Brussels, Berlin and Paris,” will try to impose it by every perverse and evil means possible upon all.

The Behaviour Patterns of All Elites…

The reason that I’m picking on the EU is very simple because it illustrates classically just how these things have worked throughout history, they are moving in the opposite direction to the one they should go in. A monolithic EU controlled by France and Germany for their own benefit to the exclusion and detriment of the other member states, is no longer acceptable to the majority of EU citizens including French and German ones.

What people want is cooperation on mutual areas of interest but the power in the majority of things that effect their daily lives, devolved downwards and away from the centre. People are not stupid and can easily see that the majority of the endless stream of EU Directives exist to make all EU countries uncompetitive and dependent upon France and Germany, a new future European land war is a certainty unless the EU is cut down to size and individual countries allowed to be free to negotiate their own destinies as they see them plus, accept the consequences if wrong.

An Idiotic Prime Minister

But it is not just in simple politics the ruling elites get it badly wrong as the recent silly story in the UK illustrates of two new super aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy ordered primarily because of Scottish shipyard jobs. For the defence of these islands and a force projection beyond these shores, we need these two white elephants like a hole in the head, if ever deployed seriously in war, they would be the first things to be sunk or, ‘too precious’ to be deployed ! In purely military terms, we may just as well start building “Dreadnought and Iron Clad” type battleships again.

The future does not lie in expensive manned aircraft launched from a massive aircraft carrier, it lies in very many far smaller ships that can launch and recover unmanned aircraft such as the ‘Predator etc.’ You would think the fools would have learned from the story of the Euro-Fighter/Typhoon which nice aircraft that it is, given greater foresight at the beginning of the project, you wouldn’t have started it in the first place.

The Future is Small, All Encompassing and no EU

When the Labour Government surged ahead with their ‘Devolution’ for Scotland and Wales, it was on their part simply a cynical ploy to embed a Celtic Labour majority into every future Westminster Parliament. That it has backfired particularly in Scotland upon them, is quite amusing but perhaps like many good things, the unintended consequences may point to a better future and more representative Government for the whole of the UK although less scope for the EU.

Alex Salmon takes great delight in taunting the English with “No University Fees” and so on as part of his personal campaign to be the next King of Scotland however, the Scottish people were never so gullible. Given their, relative to England, small populations and therefore tax base potential, it is smart practice for any of the 3 Celtic Nations to use any lever they may to extract ever more financial concessions in “Defence of the Union” or “Labour Hegemony”, swap the words to suit whoever is the ruling party at Westminster.

An excellent recent example being the 9 DUPs (Democratic Unionist Party) giving wee Gordon support on 42 days in return for some Government bribes or largesse over former MOD Land or, whatever. It really doesn’t matter, all that does is to highlight the endemic corruption of Westminster and its “habitués”

This “game” needs to be changed both for fairness and equality but also for the basic dignity of all four great nations that make up the United Kingdom. We can and will I am sure, slice and dice this all far better than is being done currently but, in the process we will need better quality politicians than we currently have available to us.