question everything
DEMOCRACY
‘It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those others that have been tried’ Winston Churchill again, sorry but his way with words and his withering put downs are a cut above anyone else’s.
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Democracy is dead, long live democracy!
'On this basis voting ‘out’ means that you hand all of the power back to Westminster – is that what you really want to do? It’s not like they have a great track record is it.'
Just in case you’ve forgotten here’s a few blunders that stand out: (2)
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The nationalisation of the coal and steel industry (this cost the UK £22bn between 1970 and 1980 alone, or around £173bn at today's rates).
The NHS (not the concept but the sheer stupidity of its implementation and continuing management).
Britain’s exit from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism - when we devalued our currency and interest rates went to 15%.
Tony Blair’s bombing of Iraq.
The MPs expenses scandal.
The government spending £10 billion of tax payers money on a new IT system for the NHS and then just throwing it away without ever using it.
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I could go on and on – none of these had anything to do with the EU, it was all our own work. In any event if any of you are still unconcerned about handing back power to our government here’s an explanation of how the EU Parliament works; it is democratic – well, as least as democratic as any other form of democratic government in the civilized world…
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Representation
There’s a video going around at the moment that has been viewed over 2 million times of the aged Eurosceptic Tony Benn espousing his views on the EU. First off he says that all the key positions in the EU council are appointed not elected. It’s not true. The European Council is made up of each country’s national leaders, leaders who have been voted into power by the electorate and further, contrary to popular supposition, the regularly maligned ‘unelected Eurocrats’, the commission president and council president, do not get a vote at all.. Then every member of the European Parliament is also an elected representative (MEP’s).
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The fact is these elections are badly supported and the turn-out is abysmal, but they exist and you have a right to vote in them. So sure, not all the people that comprise the EU system are elected - but then again, when was the last time you elected a member of the House of Lords? Or when did you ever vote for the host of ‘invisible’ civil servants implementing policies? And finally, when did you ever vote for whoever each individual political party’s candidate for Premiership in an election would be? That's right - never.
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A democratic deficit?
What the total apathy toward EU elections some detractors claim leads to is another buzz phrase that you’ll hear time and time again ‘A democratic deficit’; and that’s not true either. A democratic deficit is when there are no elections, and the people are on the street demanding them. What we have in Europe is a democratic surplus. We hold elections but people do not turn up. And that is a problem that needs addressing because with such a low turnout the argument is that the EU does not have a democratic mandate to represent the people – it also leads to minority parties gaining more power than they should. In any event the fact of the matter is this problem is caused by us not the system as we have a right to vote but don’t use it; yes the system could be better and that is something the EU are working hard at to try and remedy. So it is democratic, well at least as democratic as our own system of government.
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What’s also interesting to point out at this stage is this debate concerning appointed or elected representatives; the idea that one is somehow more beneficial or more impartial than the other. Most MPs and experts on the subject are now working towards appointed representatives rather than elected ones, why? Because it more naturally reflects a national parliament’s own composition and helps to keep the crazies out. An example of this is Ukip who, because of how the voting system works (and because of the apathy of voters as previously mentioned), now have more MEP’s than either of the UK’s main political parties. As UKIP leader Nigel Farage told voters, ‘these elections represent a ‘free hit’, a chance to stick it to the government without the risk of consequences’. (3), (4), (5) (6)
Of course it’s very true, democracy is no-where near perfect and even more so in this day and age. Modern democracy is an illusion of control and ever since the Greeks developed the process in around 500 BC governments for centuries have been using its power to perfect a method of giving an impression of yielding to the people they control whilst doing nothing of the sort. Democracy is controlled by organizations with financial power and this became particularly evident in the last century with banking and big business controlling the economy and government policy; corporatocracy is king and you would have to be incredibly naïve to believe otherwise. (1)
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That’s why when the debate on the EU diverts down the back passage of a belief that the EU is somehow less democratic than our own government you have to smile; there’s no difference at all, they are as equally corrupt as each other. Technically our government is accountable to us; but it isn’t. Yes, you can change the party in power but as the invisible (and unelected) hoards of the civil service effectively govern the country the party in power creates a veneer of change, but it’s largely irrelevant. How accountable have they been over the NHS, teachers and doctor’s pay, housing and benefits etc etc? On this basis voting ‘out’ means that you hand all of the power back to Westminster – is that what you really want to do? It’s not like they have a great track record is it.
'As UKIP leader Nigel Farage told voters, ‘these elections represent a ‘free hit’, a chance to stick it to the government without the risk of consequences’.
Accountability and control
Let’s dispel one myth immediately - The EU does not control everything we do. Its main work concerns the regulation of markets, consumer standards, environmental standards, foreign trade and aid; this accounts quite naturally for a large amount of regulation and is calculated at around 62% of UK Law. (7) Incidentally, these are laws that if the EU didn’t regulate we would have to regulate ourselves anyway. The issues that matter to most voters (and this really is the most crucial point) – employment, social security, education, health, most taxes etc. – are handled at national level. That’s where we then get to this often repeated argument about EU law being forced upon us that we have no control over. Yes, it does happen, but as I’ve already explained, these are generally regulatory laws; an example of which would be worker’s rights and the minimum wage.
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On this basis when the government complains about the EU it’s generally concerning law they would prefer not to implement; that’s why as regards worker’s right’s etc. Labour have always generally been in favour of the EU and the Conservatives split on membership. Which is another reason why reverting total control back to the UK government could adversely affect many people.
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Another example of regulatory control that has hit the headlines is the tax on Tampons: Tampongate. This story ran in pretty much every newspaper throughout the UK and explained how the EU was ‘forcing’ the UK to charge VAT on tampons as a luxury item. Technically true (all of these lies have some germ of truth in them..) but that’s not the full story. The tax was introduced right back when we joined the EU in 1973, and of course the government agreed to it at that time as it brought Britain in line with the other EU member states on a number of goods and services – so it was never forced on them, and since then they have never asked to change it!
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Ireland has a 0% tax on tampons because they asked for it and we could have applied to have it changed at any time over the last 43 years but didn't. The Europe Commission have since said that a request for a change on the rate seems 'fair and reasonable’. So what was all the fuss about? Now it’s down to our Government to follow the protocol to make it happen, and guess what, they can’t be bothered because it’s not a priority anymore. (8)
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The votes ‘lost’ lie
There’s been a lot of stuff floating around on social media and repeated by some BREXIT campaigners about the fact the EU takes little notice of our Government – this manifests itself in this quote, ‘On all 72 occasions that the UK has voted against a measure in the Council of Ministers, it has been outvoted.’ Now, whilst this is true the actual number of votes Britain has lost is totally irrelevant. What matters is the percentage against the total number of votes that Britain participates in within the EU; and here are the facts on that. ‘Official EU voting records show that the British government has voted ‘No’ to laws passed at EU level on 56 occasions, abstained 70 times, and voted ‘Yes’ 2,466 times since 1999, according to UK in a Changing Europe Fellows Sara Hagemann and Simon Hix. In other words, UK ministers were on the ‘winning side’ 95% of the time, abstained 3% of the time, and were on the losing side 2%.’
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It’s therefore a premeditated misrepresentation of the facts - technically it’s true, but in context it’s bumfluff. (9)
'It’s therefore a premeditated misrepresentation of the facts - technically it’s true, but in context it’s total arse gravy'.
Summary
Political leaders and commentators seeking to make political capital, or to gain attention, or to speak out against the EU because they are ideologically opposed to what it stands for, are likely to say that the EU is undemocratic – is that a surprise to anyone? This may well be the case in some areas and there is no question, as we’ve already seen, that it can be improved upon. The EU is unwieldy, expensive, over complicated, wasteful and in need of reform, but these same criticisms can be justifiably aimed at our own government too – more so in fact (see below).
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Can you imagine what it’s like to be a part of the EU commission? There are 28 control freaks to deal with all with their own agenda which of course manifests itself as a huge amount of complicated red tape that needs to be overcome – how could it work any other way? If it were easy you’d have members riding roughshod over every piece of legislation shouting YEEEHAW as they rode off into the sunset with their saddle bags packed with other people’s gold. The trick is in identifying which parts of the legislative structure can be relaxed whilst still maintaining the integrity of the whole. That takes time and there are very clear indications this is happening on an ongoing basis – but whatever your views it is obvious that we can’t hope to change it from the outside.
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Britain’s belief in its own sovereignty is political narcissism pure and simple and we’ve already paid the price for that on more than one occasion when we were asked to join on numerous occasions in the past to then only end up begging for a seat at the table when our arrogance drove us to the edge of ruin. You’d think that would teach us a lesson but as narcissism is Britain’s mental illnesses since joining we’ve done what any narcissist would do and that is to project our failings onto all of those around us.
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Members of any nation’s ruling class will always find rules imposed upon them (especially as regards worker’s rights and restrictions of trade) as irritating, objectionable and unacceptable declaring it undemocratic. They will have had no intention of allowing these provisions to become law in their country in the first place and they would naturally prefer a system that enables them to be repealed. In other words, our government wanst less rights for their own citizens than the EU thinks they deserve or should have.
'In other words, our government wants less rights for their own citizens than the EU thinks they deserve or should have'.
So the question is; do you consider that to be ‘democratic’?
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And while you’re thinking about that try and find out who you can hold accountable for the NHS' abandoned IT patient record system that cost the British tax payer over £10 billion in 2013; or who’s responsible for the failure of the Child Support Agency that left thousands of families without any money; or the people responsible for the chaos within the passport agency; or the tax credit system which was left vulnerable to fraud; or the late payments from the rural payments agency; or the difficulties in tracking foreign national prisoners... (10)
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The failure of democracy is evident everywhere you look and non-more so than with regard to the immigration issue. Blair failed to impose a cap on immigration in 2004 when he could have done. Fine, let's change the government - we did, and since then each successive government has failed to control immigration. Why? Because it's good for the economy.
A change of government does nothing to change the basic fundamentals of how the country is run. A change of government does not mean that one will resond to the will of the people more than the other; because the will of the people is irrelevant compared to the will of parliament.
You can dress it up and put lipstick on it if you want and call it anything you like - but whatever it is, you can't call it democracy anymore.
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Sources:
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy
3 - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/20/eu-democratic-deficit
5 - http://europedia.moussis.eu/books/Book_2/4/09/05/?all=1 )
7 - https://fullfact.org/europe/two-thirds-uk-law-made-eu/
8 - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e34e206-7d51-11e5-98fb-5a6d4728f74e.html#axzz4AQNhRwfF
9 - https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-facts-behind-claims-uk-influence/
10 - http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn
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