Shall we get rid of democracy?

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I noted this in the FT this morning:

Fortunately for the UK, the previous coalition government at least pushed infrastructure higher up the political agenda in a way that would have been unthinkable under former prime ministers Gordon Brown or Tony Blair. For this, business should be grateful. But the new government should go one better. Both the CBI and the BCC are calling for a new independent body to decide on infrastructure needs and priorities, detached from the political cycle. Next Wednesday would be a good time for the government to announce one.

The paragraph is the conclusion of an article by Sarah Gordon entitled 'Infrastructure is too important to fall under the spell of politics'. And yet the call is blatantly political, as is Gordon's article (which is also blatantly wrong in its analysis of Blair and Brown).

The call should instead be seen as just another in the ongoing cycle of demands from business that a wide range of decisions be removed from political control. So, the Bank of England was. The NHS has been passed over to local boards of the great and good. And the ACCA has called for there to be only one budget a parliament so that tax can be taken out of the democratic arena. And now the demand is that infrastructure spending should also be handed over.

The trend is unmistakable and is clearly an assault on democracy. We're seeing it in Greece, but don't have any doubt it is happening here in the UK too, done by nice people in suits.


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