You appear to be somewhat defensive or perhaps even supportive of our present government and you have not engaged in the debate other than to repeatedly tell us we are wrong to talk about UK politics, that you are “sick of it” and you demand that we come up with the solutions - without even asking to what, “everything” is a bit too big for one forum post.
The essential first step is to remove the Tories from power.
revolting post
I’m using that button right now.
Please slow down and take a deep breath. If you think people are bing unfair to the current government a longer post explaining why might be more useful.
I have work to do this afternoon, I’m going to set slow mode for a while.
I’m not asking for you to be left or right, just to put up some answers about where we can go -and positives
Just pointing out to contributors to this topic that the topic has been slowed and that it isn’t closed, just people have to wait between posts for thinking time.
@cat @billybutcher
Candjg, may I ask how long you have lived in France?
Of course, since 1999 here
Vote Labour!
What???
I’m not Trussed up at all. I’ve been back to Plague Island once since I moved to France and the SAS couldn’t drag me back there to live.
There are a lot of solutions out there if you look for them candjg. A good place to start is the New Economics Foundation - on the immediate issue of the energy crisis these are their proposals:
Someone who can make a fat bag of cash form using their power to help their mates?
Brenda sends the Gurkhas into the HoC and HoL and everyone in those buildings gets a very short haircut. William is put in charge and selects Royal Advisors from professionals who are SMEs in their own fields. Saying no isn’t an option and anyone found feathering their nests gets hung, drawn and quartered in middle of Regent’s Park.
What’s not to like?
My first suggestion would be to make the UK parliamentary system democratic: so the parliamentary representatives reflect the political will of the nation.
A system in which a minority vote can return an 80 seat majority is clearly not democratic.
No need for any narrative… the clips say it all - bleeding pathetic.
While I agree with this aim, I find myself uncertain as to what the optimal democratic system might look like.
Proportional representation based on party votes indeed reflects public opinion - but erodes the role of an MP as not just a party member, but a representative of their constituency (in which capacity they do sometimes go against party policy).
I guess mixed systems like those for the devolved assemblies in the UK, in which you have area representatives but the party proportions adjusted from a slate to make the result near proportional in the end, could be a good compromise - but still mean very large constituencies (especially in more populous countries, and more especially if the number of MPs is reduced).
Note also in the UK these systems were intended to produce weak government !
Then there are the various transferable vote systems - I have actually built these into company constitutions for people, with the result that a couple of simple and easily understood articles are replaced by a page of dense instructions! Included here in a way I guess is the French second voting round. The intention here I assume was to ensure that anybody elected had at least 50% support - but in practice has maybe simply meant more abstentions.
Then there’s the Chinese ‘delegate’ democracy system (actually much like what was once universal practice in labour movements across the world) - which they argue is the most democratic because at each delegate level voters meet and often know candidates personally, whereas (they say) western elections are decided by the media. (And indeed the US at least keeps electing actors and television personalities - and we have Zemmour, etc…)
It’s not something I know much about (as you can probably deduce from what I’ve written) - but I know enough to see pros and cons everywhere.
Might make an interesting topic. I know @strudball could contribute.
Unfortunately comprehensively rejected in 2012
Suella Braverman, Rees-Mogg et al supported by comments that Truss has put in place the most right wing government full of her supporters, not since the 1980’s, maybe we all should have been more carefull what we wished for. (Tongue in cheek…bring back Boris!)