Current Affairs Does democracy work?

[1966efc]

Depends.

What condition are they in and how much do you want for them?

Can't put a price on dentures that hold a piece of my heart. And other body parts.

 

[Boss_Blue]

Can't put a price on dentures that hold a piece of my heart. And other body parts.

*laments what might have been...

 

[1966efc]

*laments what might have been...

I know. You had 4 limbs, correctly situated. Such and improvement on my last encounter.

 

[VentureBrosEFC]

No, it doesn't. Politics attracts people who shouldn't be in a position to lead due to their selfish nature. Doesn't matter which brand you go after, the reasons why candidates are candidates are self-serving. I don't believe anyone actually in Politics wants to "make the world a better place", anyone who did want to soon realizes that there are forces out there that have more power to direct the way things go than they ever will.

It's a rigged game, has been since the start.

This is the real crux of the issue. The people who ascend to the highest positions of commerce/political stewardship/civil service more often than not are narcissistic sociopaths ready to fire their grandmother out of a cannon for a 10% raise.

 

[Tree13]

Exactly. That's what we vote for our local MP for, to supposedly make these informed decisions for us.

Errrr no it isn't. Absolutely not.

We elect our local MP's to represent us. We elect them to attend Parliament and communicate OUR wishes. The fact that so many people are happy to make no effort whatsoever to communicate with their MP is a massive weakness of the system, yes: but the system is emphatically NOT supposed to be one where the function of decision-making is taken from the electorate completely, to be carried out by someone who ostensibly "knows better". Your MP, like mine, acts as guided by the constituents who contact them.

The simple reason we have a Parliamentary chamber is practicality: it is absurd to try to assemble 40 million people (very roughly the number of eligible voters in the UK) in a room somewhere to discuss an issue and vote on it, so we divide the country up into 650-odd areas and each area sends a messenger (their MP) to convey the majority wishes of the people in that area. That's why we ELECT our MPs - if they do not represent our wishes, we boot them out.

 

[Whistlin' Dixie]

Democracy works when I get me way.

 

[JonS]

Neither Cuba (from the socialist end) and Singapore (from the capitalist end) are particularly democratic but they are both countries with an awful lot of plusses in how they look after their population.

 

[neil999]

Not perfect, but there isn't a better system

 

[COYBL25]

Not perfect, but there isn't a better system

Wise words Neil

Thanks as always x

 

[neil999]

Wise words Neil

Thanks as always x

Simple but true

 

[COYBL25]

Simple but true

If you were a politician I'd vote for you x

 

[1966efc]

Yes, democracy works. Maybe badly in some instances but it does work.

 

[The Cowboy]

Quite. We have people with good intentions falling into the trap of playing the game, naturally through ego, or by coercion to the point of blackmail.

Part of the problem is the language used to 'uphold' the merits of 'democracy', making out it is righteous ( a hangover from religious influence down the years) and we expect the representative participants to be as such too, but they're not, we're not. But failure to meet that expectancy is met with absolute derision.

Some think they can play within the game, but the system only needs to have strategic supporters to survive and protect itself. I read it once described like a row of dominoes, the one in the front is taking the flak but the others have to protect it to stop them all falling if it goes.

If we spent more time looking for new ways of governance than attacking participants we might get change, as it is we see the players as the complete weakness but not the strategy of the game. Let's be honest, the whole brexit thing is/was a stitch up from start to finish, do we really believe whichever aay it goes it will be down to the 'will of the people'?

I think I said it earlier in another thread, but political parties are the root of the problem. Vote for a local MP, let the house choose a common leader that will represent the nation in global affairs, and form a range of select committees for everything else. This constant 'whatever they believe, we'll believe the opposite' attitude is mental and needs to be stopped.

 

[tsubaki]

I think I said it earlier in another thread, but political parties are the root of the problem. Vote for a local MP, let the house choose a common leader that will represent the nation in global affairs, and form a range of select committees for everything else. This constant 'whatever they believe, we'll believe the opposite' attitude is mental and needs to be stopped.

A thousand times this. If anyone needs any further example than reality, they should take a look at the Norway Debate of 1940 to see what the party system results in.

To set the scene, Great Britain has just seen the utter disaster of the 1940 Norwegian Campaign take place; its Prime Minister is held in contempt by almost everyone and had to sit through two days of the most well-informed and savage criticism from a sequence of MPs, some of whom held high military rank and were well aware of what state the armed forces were in. Others were themselves serving in the armed forces and almost to a man slated the way he (and the Government) were conducting the war. Most of the rest had military experience in the Great War, or had helped win that conflict in other ways, or had experience in government or the Empire. Members had more evidence and personal experience available to them than almost any other MPs have had, before or since, of how badly wrong things were going.

281 of them, a majority of 81, backed the Government.

 

[dandydan]

Our MP's and judiciary will have freedom of choice. Gallows or firing squad. No guillotine as that's foreign therefore probably unreliable.