baldysblog.co.uk

Throughout the present turmoil which let’s face it, started for us in the UK with Northern Rock in the Summer of 2007 and dragged on until February 2008 when it was finally nationalised which has made it the UK’s Toxic Bank. Nobody in Government has stood up and apologised or accepted responsibility for any of it.

We have in the UK the most arrogant and ignorant politicians anywhere on the Planet and I would say that it is high time that we the electorate, taught them a sharp lesson and we have the means to hand to do so by voting on our Ballot Papers at the next election – NONE OF THE ABOVE. Now whilst in Australia I believe they actually have that on their ballot papers, we don’t but we can still achieve the same by deliberately ‘spoiling’ our ballot papers by putting a cross in every box.

Average Turnouts

For example since the 1950′s the turnout at General Elections has been falling from +80% to below 60% at the last election so that 25% or less of the potential electorate are voting in a Government and at this level, regardless of political party, no one can claim a mandate for their policies however many seats in the House they have.

You can bet your bottom dollar that it is the younger voter who is most disengaged from the whole democratic process and as they will inherit this appalling mess we are leaving them, we really would like to get them involved.

Getting the Vote Out

The ‘trick’ for any political party is to ‘get the vote out’ on the day by which they mean supporters and people who will vote for them but we really do need to go further than that, we need to get the public re-engaged with the political process.

The problem is that in the post WWII generation, class was an issue and the ‘issues mattered’ to people. The retreat from Empire of the 50′s, increasing prosperity and the bursting of the class barriers by the young in the 60′s led gradually to less interest in the political processes. The attitude being as Heath found out when he foolishly called an election over “Who Rules the Country”, somehow changed to; “We’ve given you the job, get on with it or give it to someone else”.

Gradually though even that seems to have given way to even greater apathy along the lines that “What does it matter, they never listen, they are all the same…”

The problem with this has been that it has become totally true, a self fulfilling prophesy, politicians do not listen to people and make absolutely no effort to explain anything to the electorate. Look at Brown and his drones…”Getting on with the job, decisions for the long term…” and other such like gob shite.

The Current Labour Government

Is the classic case in point, they are stone deaf and self absorbed to every man and woman. A Party Conference should be a chance for people to have some “face time” together but more importantly, to act as a shop window for the aims and ambitions of the movement. Manchester this week is just people clinging to the wreckage of their personal ambitions and a total denial of any personal responsibility in causing the mess.

Morally they should after 11 years that have led to where we are today, resign and face a General Election but they won’t, they will cling on to the death to avoid unemployment personally and maximise on their salaries, allowances, expenses and future pension entitlements.

However it is far more than that because right across the House, the majority voted for MPs benefits above whatever it might look like to the electorate and the behaviour of many like Derek Conway and Speaker Martin have not enhanced the reputation of the House.

A Time For A Change

We by which I mean us the electorate need to bring these people to heel. Politicians have got out of hand and ceased to reflect our views because we have allowed them to, we have neglected our “Duty” as British Citizens to keep our eyes on the very place where over 40% of the nations wealth is being squandered on a daily basis.

Without the discipline of constant scrutiny by us, these politicians have drifted off into a world of their own where they just make it up to suit their personal fantasies. If we take for example the promised Referendum on the EU Constitution which was jumbled up and represented as the Lisbon Treaty, there was absolutely no way that the Government should get away with that.

Now I personally want us out of the political EU but it isn’t the point because however the Referendum went, it was promised and, would have forced Brown and Moribund to explain themselves and “IT”.

We do need to look at a lot of carefully structured Constitutional changes which will include a reduction in the numbers of MPs and possibly a variation on that useful American procedure to “Recall” a sitting member which should make them perk up a bit and make them more representative of their constituents – lets call it “Yank Your Chain”.

Let’s Make A Start

It would be wonderful if we could get electoral turnout to the +80% mark again but in order to do so, we need to excite people and give them a reason “why” they should bother. Imagine this and it matters not who the party is, if the majority of MPs elected to the House knew that more people voted “None Of The Above” by spoiling their ballot papers deliberately than for them personally or, even better for all the candidates votes in that Constituency, we might have made a start.

All we will need to do then is get a “Yank Your Chain” recall process onto the Statute Book and we will start to get the little Darlings under control again !