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Posts Tagged ‘Parliamentary Reform’

As ever, the Independent in another half baked Editorial advises people to vote YES to changing the voting system from First Past the Post to the Alternative Vote where people vote for the candidates in order of their preference. This is not proper Proportional Representation for those who believe in that, frankly it is just tinkering with the system for no good reason. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-just-say-yes-to-voting-reform-2278567.html

In reality there is a reason which is simply that it was part of the Coalition Agreement and Nick Clegg needed to see the Referendum delivered in order to demonstrate to his own party members that being part of the Government does bring benefits and the achievement of ‘cherished goals’ not otherwise possible by them just being in Opposition. My own prediction is that the “NO’s” will have it tomorrow and the LibDems will have to accept: “Wrong time and wrong place” as a consequence.

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The saying, “War is too important to be left to the Generals” probably also applies to Constitutions and Politicians. Constitutional change is far too important to be left to the politicians, they just don’t seem to have a clue and certainly lack the intellectual rigour to suggest anything remotely workable.

This Thursday we have local council elections down here but also, the Referendum on changing the voting system from First Past the Post to the Alternative Vote. Funny how a Coalition Agreement can conjure that up when herds of wild stallions couldn’t get the greasy buggers to give us a Referendum on the EU !

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Here we go, the “Left Wing metropolitan classes” strike again ! Off the back of the government being advised to halt all further “ennoblements” to the House of Lords because it is “Full”, the Independent in yet another air headed Editorial, declares that it is urgent to reform the Lords… http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-lords-reform-must-be-delayed-no-longer-2271056.html

I know I keep saying it but because the Editorials in the Independent are consistently so intellectually lightweight, I swear they are written by 6^th Formers on Work Experience placements. The proof will come if we get an article on saving Wales !

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There is a very amusing article in The Economist concerning the ‘election’ of a new Hereditary Peer following the death of a former incumbent and a bit of a “must read” for those interested in the oddities of the British Constitution including it’s customs and practice : http://www.economist.com/node/18443539

In reality though, it all hinges around the rather foolish (in my opinion) and demonic desire to “Reform the Lords” without any regard to understanding the basic problem that however “quaint” the Lords may seem and therefore ripe for reform, the real obstacle to any meaningful reform lies in the House of Commons itself and that ‘problem’ has thwarted every attempt at ‘reform of the Lords’ for over 100 years. Truly, the “little darlings in the Commons” never ever learn, total dullards as they are.

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There was an interesting article by John Rentoul in the Independent on how David Cameron risks being caught between a ‘pincer movement’ by the Tory Right and the Liberal Elite over the European Court of Human Rights: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-a-pincer-movement-on-no-10-2219869.html#comment-153134186

But as is often the case, it led me to think somewhat beyond the current difficulties of ‘Votes for Prisoners’ and the right for convicted people to ask to be removed from the Sex Offenders Register after a period of time, it leads me to wonder about the practical limits on political power.

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As someone who is ‘right of centre’ in their political views, perhaps the funniest thing in town is the ‘opprobrium’ showered upon both Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher and often, by their supposed supporters from their own political parties.

However and only because he is more ‘immediate’ of the two, Blair is most relevant to today’s politics and our immediate future. The Iraq War has no great relevance in British politics today though of course, it does in Iraq and particularly to the citizens of that Country. The ‘Blair Years’ are important to us in the UK but for completely different reasons which, need to be examined…

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Working wholly on the Class System which all UK Journalists “Deplore” apparently, we have the ‘Broadsheets’ and the ‘Red Tops’. Whilst the ownership of these may be common and journalists totally inter-changeable for career advancement, these are ‘marketing distinctions’ designed for us ‘Prols’ who are thought to be too stupid to notice.

To be fair to these ‘Media Marketing Machines’, they are not far wrong because we tend to be stupid enough to put ourselves in the ‘box’ they have designated for us through our own petty prejudices and like sheep in a pen, once separated from the rest, can be ‘dealt with, sold to’, as desired and along pre-determined lines…

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For an example of the most self indulgent pompous crap that Fleet Street is capable of, it would be hard to top this example by Peter Oborne in today’s Daily Telegraph complete with over 300 reader’s comments no doubt mainly saying “here, here old chap, jolly good and quite right..” The Telegraph’s by line for him is “Peter Oborne is the Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator” and I agree, one could not illustrate what is wrong with the DT better than by explaining how low the current ‘standard is’:

: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100063444/our-parliament-is-rotten-to-the-core/

The DT’s average core reader has no more spark of intelligence than the average from the Guardian and Independent, they are mainly all totally dull. But let me deal with my objections which are not concerned with Oborne’s allegation that our Parliament is rotten to the core, it may or may not be but if so, he is not offering any sensible remedies or solutions, he is just having a journalistic wank at our and his employer’s expense.

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The Independent in its infinite wisdom has decided to change the way it deals with readers comments on articles, a move designed to increase boredom and decrease any valid ‘debate’. I have lived through this before; It was contributing to the Telegraph that first led me to set up this blog back in November 2007 but they too decided to change their “readers comments” set-up and turn the whole thing to boring dross and now too the ‘Indy’ follows – Oh Well…there you go.

But the reason that I mention this is simply that of only a couple of regular Independent columnists worth reading, John Rentoul is one and the starting point for this particular blog was an entry he made on the ‘old system’ so whereas I would normally just give you a web link, as this may disappear into the ether, I have had to quote the key passages which I dislike because it is other people’s copyright:-

John Rentoul: The Hung Parliament Party – http://johnrentoul.independentminds.livejournal.com/408639.html

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With a new Parliament gathering, there is the opportunity to elect a new Speaker. In my opinion, Bercow has not demonstrated the type of energetic leadership that was required after Martin stepped down and set against the background of the “Expenses Scandal” so, he needs to be replaced and likely by someone with a bit of gravitas and or intellectual wit.

At the time and although neither put themselves forward, I thought that either Frank Field or Vince Cable would be excellent candidates.

Of course one could argue that until the issue of the Separation of Powers between the Executive and the Legislature is resolved, there is currently no longer under the existing state of the Constitution, any particular reason that the Speaker is a sitting MP, their job could be done by a whole number of outside people – Speaker Paxman ?