Do we live in a democracy?

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As a result of the questions I have asked over the last few days it was suggested I ask another question. I will summarise this as 'do we live in a democracy?'

I am committed to democracy. It is not ideal. It is just that every other form of government that we have tried is worse, as Winston Churchill once put it.

The trouble is I very much doubt we have democracy.

The Tories have moved to the far-right without asking anyone whether they should.

Labour has moved to the centre-right despite the objections of very large parts of its membership.

And, with the best will in the world, in a first past-the-post-electoral system these two parties will dominate the next election and will as a result deny most voters any real electoral choice.

But then, that has long been a feature of first-past-the-post politics, which system is used only by the UK and Belarus in Europe. That system is glaringly obviously unable to support real democratic choice and leaves some people without the chance to ever  choose a representative in government with whom their views align for their whole lifetime purely because of where they live.

I suggest that first-past-the-post is exploited by our current two major parties to now actively deny people access to democracy in a way not seen before. The Labour leadership know this. The membership  have said they wish to be rid of it. The leadership refuses to consider that.

We also know that the Tories are gerrymandering the chance of voting, and maybe seat boundaries too.

So, do we live in a democracy? A poll:

Do we live in a democracy?

  • No, because the two main parties will keep first-past-the-post to deny us democracy which they have no interest in (54%, 422 Votes)
  • No (22%, 171 Votes)
  • No, because first-past-the-post is inherently biased (15%, 117 Votes)
  • I'm abstaining, but show me the results anyway (4%, 35 Votes)
  • Yes (3%, 21 Votes)
  • No, because the two-party system is inherently biased (2%, 13 Votes)
  • Yes, because this is as good as it gets (1%, 6 Votes)

Total Voters: 785

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