Author: simon
Democracy Matters: Use Your Vote
Monday, 1st June, 2009 at 6:53 pm, Isle of Wight
Election, Island-wide, Opinion Piece, Overseas, Politics
This Thursday, 4th June, there are three elections happening on the Island – Town/parish; County and European.
Given the strange collection of events that have come together at this moment – MP’s expenses; many politicians showing that they’re disconnected from the general public; an increasing lack of trust in politicians; the Speaker of the House stepping down; cash for questions; cash for peerages; the exposure of the thinly-veiled soap opera that politics has become – people are rejecting the current political system.
Somehow, for many, the two/three party system doesn’t appear to fit into what they feel is right for today – the limited structure just doesn’t reflect the complexity of life.
Many feel that the current political system, locally and nationally, of voting once every four years – leads to what is effectively an elected dictatorship.
The people that we, the public, vote into power steam off in their own direction, feeling little, if any, need to ask us what we think until it’s time to ask for our vote again, four years later.
Now is different
We know that many people are disillusioned by the political process – feeling that it won’t make any difference if they vote or not, as the same silly games will continue regardless.
But, now is different. The coming together of current events bring a special time forward that hasn’t occurred before.
Make sure you get out and use your vote.
You voting _will_ make a difference.
Image: D’Arcy Norman
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Well said, quite right: get out there and vote.
I attended the hustings that Independent candidates Steve Stubbings and Chris Welsford held at the Middle School this evening.
I think they are the only Ventnor candidates to hold a public meeting but, what was interesting is that they want to know what people think and care about so that they can represent them.
They were both quite open about their personal views on the issues raised, but they still maintained that they would try to represent electors’ opinions, majority and minority both.
I would like to think that Simon is right: things are changing and the thing that will change them is voting.
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We only vote in the government/councils and EU ministers we deserve! Mainly due to the total apathy of the British public, as a child of Holocaust Survivor parents and a 1st Generation English born person, I understand how vital voting is to ensure we have a true democracy. Those of you who are thinking of NOT voting should really have a hard think about what they want out of life – do you really want to live in a police state, where every aspect of your life is watched and controlled by people who have no real understanding of how the man on the street feels, do you want politicians who are no better than common criminals who think that fiddling the books, taxes and anything else they can get away with running our country? Do you want the same system to abuse our taxes, and make us even worse off?
Then VOTE if you want change.
If you can’t be bothered, all I can say is ‘Well you had the chance, don’t bloody moan if nothing changes, because it’s your apathy that has kept this as they are!!”
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Is a radical rupture with the political system needed?
Scores of MPs have faced questions about their expenses claims, ranging from failures to pay capital gains tax and repeated “flipping” of second home designations to claims for moat clearance and a “duck island”.
An Ipsos Mori poll of 1,001 adults suggested that most people – 80% – did not only blame MPs but also thought the “parliamentary system” was to blame.
Of those surveyed 79% supported the idea of “recall” – allowing voter petitions to trigger by-elections if they get enough signatures,
In the political sphere, despite the widespread dissatisfaction with the political process and the low opinion in which politicians and the major political parties are held, the government continues to defend the status quo as far as constitutional reform and the political process are concerned. Sovereignty in Britain rests, as it has done since the so-called Glorious Revolution in 1688, with what is called in constitutional terms the Monarch in Parliament, not with the people.
Over the centuries which followed 1688, while voting was widened — although it took until 1928 for full adult suffrage to be achieved — this rule of the Monarch in Parliament became concretised in the development of the party system and the dominance of the Cabinet representing the majority party. This has persisted up to the present day, with virtual absolute power resting with the Cabinet of the party which holds the majority in the House of Commons.
The only role bestowed on the electorate is to file through the polling stations every five years or so to choose between candidates already selected by the major parties.
In the political sphere, while the suffrage is universal, the electorate does not select the candidates from amongst their peers and does not participate in governance.
Rather than bring about the changes required by the system, the present government and its immediate predecessor have consolidated this undemocratic system. Under Margaret Thatcher, major decisions were increasingly made by what became known as the inner-Cabinet, with the increasing use of the royal prerogative to by-pass even the elected Parliament as it stands. Tony Blair was prepared to use absolute executive power to take the country to war with Iraq by utilising prerogative but eventually capitulated to pressure and took it to parliament. Even so decisions were still taken by the executive without recourse to parliament.
Since the start of the 17th century the issue of sovereignty, that is the issue of where political power lies in society, has been one of the most contested notions in political theory and practice. The system of government as we know it today, that is the system of representative democracy, has evolved from this struggle over where sovereignty lies.
The political institutions and processes in Britain are based on political and constitutional theory and practice which dates back over several centuries, back even to the time of Magna Carta (1297) and before.
The political system is archaic and this is highlighted by the fact that the constitution has never been written.
The archaic nature of the British parliament and the need to change it is one of the crucial questions facing the people at this time. But the problem is not just that the political institutions and processes are out of date but that their character is fundamentally at odds with the modern definition of democracy, which is to say a political system where the people themselves hold political power rather than the political parties whose role it is to keep political power from the people. In a modern democracy the people are empowered to govern themselves.
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Maybe it will take the undemocratic action of a homicidal maniac like Cromwell to make a change happen
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I wanted to support Claire’s comment (above) twice.
I’ve heard a lot of disaffected people tell me today that they don’t intend to use their vote. This is madness! It’s for sure that the electorate who got us to where we are today will be dragged out by their blue rinses to cast their vote for the status quo. If you’d like to see change. PLEASE go out and do something.
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Echo that Steve.
This “so-called independent” has spent today doing exactly the same. An awful lot of people I met had binned their polling cards and had no intention of voting. They changed their minds when I pointed out that by not voting they might have to endure even more of what they are so unhappy about.
Funny how the prospect of another four years of party politics, motivates people to vote Independent.
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I actually saw JFB out, presumably knocking doors, last evening.
I hadn’t realised he was actually joining in this time around! ;-)
Desperate times…eh, Jonny?
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