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Tilo Rebar
In: Sussex
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| Boreades wrote: | | Bread and circuses. Relatively cheap food and massive amounts of mass entertainment. The UK excels at both. |
Finger on the button Boreades. Lots of burghers, cheap booze and enough diversions to stop people having the time or inclination to think about what's really happening. Many of the few who can see through the miasma get diverted into politics hoping to facilitate change - after all we are a democracy, or so it is said.
| Boreades wrote: | | These days, you can be arrested without warrant, news of your arrest can be banned from the newspapers, then held indefinitely without trial, or tried in a secret court. |
Not me, as I'm not a terrorist - although I expect some readers of this forum do worry from time to time.
The judiciary are still there to protect Joe public from the worst misdeeds of the state. Magna Carta may have had her skirts ruffled at times of national security emergencies, but her virginity is still mostly intact.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Tilo Rebar wrote: | | Surprisingly, you don't come across as a person who is afraid of a bit of hard labour... |
HA!
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Britanicus wrote: |
My major area of vital areas to look into are the following.
1- How to get ordinary working class men and woman, ordinary voters, into parliament and at the helm of power.
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News today in Mick's favourite newspaper, the irony that it's the Labour Party that is the least likely to have ordinary voters as candidates.
54% of Labour candidates in marginal and inherited seats have previously worked in politics or media, compared with 46% of LibDem candidates and 17% of Tories.
The research finds that former or current staff of Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper, Tessa Jowell, Ruth Kelly, Hazel Blears, Alistair Darling, Hilary Armstrong, Mary Creagh, Lord Foulkes, David Blunkett and Lord Sugar are all running. 15 ex-Labour MPs are standing again, including expenses-piggies Joan Ryan and Andrew Dismore. They identified four Red Princes so far: Jack Straw's son Will, Neil Kinnock's son Stephen, former MP Colin Burgon's son Richard and ex-MP Shona McIsaac's husband Peter.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/17/labour-candidates-marginal-seats-westminster-insiders
Spookily, and also from the Guardian, there's a correlation with the Public's Net Satisfication Ratings. Ed Miliband has hit his lowest ever personal rating by gold-standard pollsters ICM for the Guardian. The Labour leader has dropped 14 points in the last month to -39, below even Nick Clegg, who has a rating of -37. Cameron has lost last month's positive rating of +2, dropping to -5, though Osborne has seen an increase in his own rating from +5 to +6.
A Times/YouGov poll earlier this year found that not having had a 'real' job outside of politics was the least attractive quality for candidates, with 55% saying it made them unsuitable for public office.
If the poll ratings were a Star Trek episode....
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Tilo Rebar wrote: | | Magna Carta may have had her skirts ruffled at times of national security emergencies, but her virginity is still mostly intact. |
Hmm, can one be a partial virgin? Or just-a-little-bit raped?
That sounds like the Rolf Harris School of Political Theory.
Meanwhile, more and more people are realising the game is rigged.
Voting only changes the players. It doesn't change the game.
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Tilo Rebar
In: Sussex
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| Boreades wrote: | Meanwhile, more and more people are realising the game is rigged.
Voting only changes the players. It doesn't change the game. |
Yes, the game has to be rigged, Boreades, to make sure we have permanent administrative stability. Don't want any-old person(s) grabbing power and potentially threatening the ongoing well-being of HM Government.
Much better to let the people believe that they are the ones who make the important decisions about how things are run. It's also handy to have politicians as scape-goats for use on the very rare occasions when things go badly wrong.
No wonder we have a history of trying to impose the same brand of democracy on other countries. It's such a good model that, if adopted everywhere, could bring World Peace.
Wouldn't do much for the freedoms of individuals, although with enough 'bread and circuses' few would care.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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