George Monbiot has an article in the Guardian this morning in which he points out how the law on pheasant shooting is rigged to suit the needs of those doing the shooting.
And last night the BBC's Panorama programme revealed how, in its opinion, Bernie Ecclestone had managed to avoid what he claimed was billions of pounds in tax as a result of the use of offshore trust arrangemnts.
Both are examples of the same thing, which is the law being arranged for the convenience of a minority in society.
Oddly, this is not necessary, although we take it for granted that it will happen. Democracy was designed to prevent this. It is why so many quite literally fought for it. But because people don't vote, and because the left has given up challenging the authority of an elite in society (which is why, I suggest, so many don't vote) democracy is not working as it should.
The issues highlighted are important.
The failure of democracy to tackle these issues is more important.
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Well… is this a failure of democracy or a recognition that this never was a democracy? I’d say it’s the latter. They’re just not even bothering to pretend any more. We grew up in a period after the wars where so many people were so shocked by what had happened that there was something of a temporary cessation of hostilities between the rich and the poor, of the class war. The effects of that have worn off and it’s back to business as usual now with the parasitic class not bothering to hide its overt leeching off the rest of us.
Indeed-‘the great forgetting’ as Thom Hartman puts it.
Although you have spelt Guardian incorrectly I totally agree with you
From experience on the doorstep a great number of ordinary voters are apathetic with regard to voting as they feel politicans are not interested in their needs and aspirations.
I also think that the Press does not help highlighting the negative actions of politicans so the average elector does not have an alternative picture of events because of their vested interests and bias
That is why I am off to deliver our local Labour Party Newsletter today and every day until 22 May as it does contain some positive information regarding the EU and Immigration.
Perhaps you would like to contribute something for our autumn edition
That was the second attempt at spelling it too!
I am afraid I could not write for a party newsletter
And they wouldn’t want you to – with that spelling…
This is a monarchy, not a democracy.
An ultimate parasitic state.
Lorded over by those who used force and theft to get to the top of the stack, and stay there.
Nothing is new in the world.
It is no good moaning about politicians, they are not the rulers, they are bought people.
I consider democracy, as it is NOW, to be a way of keeping the peasants in their place.
Such is life…
“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”
More a way of keeping the pheasants in their place, apparently 🙂
You really couldn’t make up the stuff about pheasants. It needs a telly programme itself.
As someone who trained as a parasitologist, I always wince when the word parasite is used to describe bankers, the super-rich and the devious doings of George Osborne. I can assure you that no parasite would behave as these people do. A parasite wants to do as little harm to the host as possible (killing the goose that lays the golden eggs and all that). In contrast, the global elite seems intent on asset stripping and exploiting to exhaustion, with no regard for the trail of human devastation left in their wake.
Arguably they don’t need us now and are deliberately killing us off so as to create a roomier earth, one with far fewer people on it with far more resources available to them. They’re thinning the herd of useless eaters. It’s entirely feasible to suggest they’re doing this via what passes for food these days. They’re making money from us by poisoning us and when the NHS is all privately-owned only those who can pay will be able to afford the antidote. The rest will die.
Good point -from a biological perspective a parasite is more benign! We need a new word for the vampire squid that is leaving populaces as burnt dried out husks.
As Churchill said (or near enough) Democracy is a useless system, but it is the least bad system there is. OK, the UK’s representative system of democracy is in urgent need of reform, maybe one government for 60 million people is not enough.But I am very wary of people who knock Democracy- from whatever background. Not voting , unless you cannot completely stand every candidate,is a complete betrayal of those who fought so hard to get the vote. The elite just love those people who don’t vote.
PS it is not the sole privilege of the Left to knock the Elite!!
I agree
The elite just love those people who don’t vote.
I do not consider that ¨the elite¨ bother about voters, whether or not they exercise their option to vote.
They have circumvented the voting option, by buying those who stand for election.
Just look at the leader selection we have.
Democracy depends upon them?
What chance!
Although Labour have come out, now, as fighting for the renter and not the rentier, we shall doubtless find it to be a shallow policy as time goes…..on, and on, and…….