REFERENDUM
DEMOCRACY
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY HAS FAILED THE BRITISH PEOPLE.
OUR POLICIES
OUR FIRST-PAST-THE-POST ELECTORAL SYSTEM IS UNFAIR
Our present first-past-the-post system of representative democracy unfairly favours the two main parties — relegating other parties (such as the LibDems or UKIP) to a handful of seats even when they secure many millions of votes. This has allowed Conservative and Labour parties to play your-turn-my-turn with UK politics for the last 100 years.
Even at constituency level there are problems :
- Constituencies of different sizes give unequal weighting to individual votes and create the need for endless boundary changes. Even the very constituency names are weird and wacky and familiar towns and cities are broken-up into meaningless areas.
- It is said that a Member of Parliament is supposed to represent everyone in their constituency, but constituents voting for a different party are in reality not the least bit represented by the elected candidate and their views.
- MPs spend much of their time attending to local constituency matters which they are almost entirely powerless to do anything about — since the laws are made by the government and implemented by local councils.
The bias and fundamentally undemocratic nature of the present system is so bad that the two-thirds of voters living in non-marginal constituencies know that whichever way they vote at election time, the result for their constituency is a foregone conclusion anyway, so are often reduced to voting in a perverse tactical manner for parties they don't really believe in or simply not bothering to vote at all. WHAT A FARCE!
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
In local government, UK democracy is in an even worse state. Almost no-one outside the political intelligentsia and the parties themselves are remotely interested in the politics of local government, and haven't been for decades. Only one in three people bother to vote, and the vast majority of those that do, do so with very little enthusiasm and just vote for the party they vote for in general elections regardless of local issues. To make matters worse, often only one-third or one-half of the council is up for election at any one time, so no matter how great the displeasure with an existing local administration, the present system prevents it from being swiftly removed.
Also, with so many layers to local government, even without the (originally EU-driven) newly-imposed regional dimension to policymaking, there is considerable public confusion about which tier of government — county, district or parish — is actually responsible for even basic local services. A confusion made worse in recent years with the arrival of Police and Crime Commissioners and elected Mayors. And worse again, by the increasing involvement of the private sector for specific local government functions. Incomprehensible.
There is also the matter of parish councils, which — whilst providing a useful outlet for often well-meaning political types to do a little evening 'voluntary work' — are a throw-back to the ecclesiastical domination of politics and introduce a largely unnecessary additional layer of government.
As a final insult, those responsible for creating and perpetuating the present system have insisted on introducing all manner of weird, inconsistent and incomprehensible electoral areas — with 'wards' for district elections, 'divisions' for county elections, and the need to vote for differing numbers of candidates on different coloured ballot papers. Some electoral areas also have more than one elected member, so elected representatives can't make any changes without agreement from political opponents — which, needless to say, often isn't forthcoming. And in recent years, the election of Mayors has been used as opportunity to introduce more wacky, meaningless, 'combined areas'. Opportunity too, to introduce an entirely new (supplementary vote) electoral system — all without reference to the people!
OUR PRESENT ELECTORAL SYSTEM COULD SCARCELY BE BETTER DESIGNED TO ALIENATE PRACTICALLY EVERYONE EXCEPT A SMALL POLITICAL HARDCORE — which, of course, it probably was !
DURING BRITAIN'S EU MEMBERSHIP, REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY FAILED TO PRESERVE FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY
According to accepted political wisdom, the constitutional safeguards for the preservation of freedom and democracy are :
- representative democracy
- the separation of (decision-making) government from (law-making) parliament
- an independent judiciary
- decentralised government with strong local councils, and
- a free press.
Well, the accepted wisdom has failed miserably. The UK has had all these things for the last 40 years and they haven't come close to preventing a small unrepresentative clique of political, media and big business interests from giving away permanent control of the country to the European Union. Neither have they prevented the suppression of meaningful truth-based political debate or the imposition of an intrusive, oppressive and unpopular culture of political correctness.
OUR LEADERS WERE ABLE TO DO THIS WITHOUT THE PUBLIC BEING GIVEN A CHOICE AND WHILST LYING ABOUT IT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY !
IMPLEMENTING BREXIT : THE FINAL BETRAYAL
After 40 years of waiting, the British people were finally offered a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. We were told we were deciding the future of the nation — fully in or fully outside the EU. In spite of a thoroughly dishonest referendum campaign in which the real issues were hardly mentioned (by either side), the British people voted to 'Leave' the EU and 'take back control' of UK lawmaking.
Incredibly, the government calling the referendum then proceeded to blatantly ignore the explicit democratic will of the British people by immediately setting about negotiating a deal that would have left much of UK lawmaking still permanently under the control of EU institutions — amounting to continued EU membership in all but name!
For parliament, however, even this level of contempt for the British People was not enough. After standing for election on a platform of respecting the 2016 referendum result, the vast majority of MPs then proceeded to spend three long years opposing every attempt by the government to actually implement it!
During this period, whilst the government pressed on with their own (undisclosed) version of Brexit, pro-Remain MPs — with the assistance of the supposedly impartial Speaker of the House of Commons :
- attempted to hijack control of the final deal — seeking to remove even the possibility of a 'No Deal Brexit'
- whilst claiming to be acting as democratic representatives of the people, began calling for a second 'People's Referendum' that would have seen any meaningful 'Leave' option COMPLETELY REMOVED from the ballot paper!! (Persons voting 'Leave' apparently not counting as 'people' at all.)
- before finally descending to the level of attempting a full-blown parliamentary coup that would have seen the democratically-elected government of this country COMPLETELY REMOVED from office and just simply REPLACED with MPs' own preferred 'coalition government' WITHOUT ANY REFERENCE TO THE PEOPLE WHATSOEVER!!
Unbelievable.
WHETHER FOR OR AGAINST BREXIT, THIS UNPRECEDENTED BETRAYAL — AND NATIONAL FIASCO — HAS SHOWN THAT OUR PRESENT SYSTEM OF REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AMOUNTS TO LITTLE MORE THAN UNDEMOCRATIC RULE BY ELITE CLIQUE!
REFERENDUM DEMOCRACY :
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE
People Everywhere Want MORE Democracy, NOT Less !
OPPOSITION PARTY REFERENDUMS
— Under our proposals, opposition parties placed 2nd to 4th (by % share of the vote) at a general election will win the right to put two national referendum questions to the electorate each year during that 5-year parliament. All opposition party referendum questions to be combined into a single multi-issue opposition party referendum held each non-general election year, on the same day — 'Referendum Day'.
— Opposition parties winning their referendum will then move immediately from mere talk to exercising real power AS THEY THEMSELVES set about implementing their winning referendum outcome.
— Every year, opposition parties will therefore have a REAL opportunity to bring forward their own major piece of legislation — or if they prefer, seek to block a major policy the government is planning to implement.
— And by restricting the right to call a referendum to the top-placed parties at general elections, constant activist-inspired calls for referendums will be prevented — keeping our settled party-based system and our Westminster parliament firmly at the centre of British politics.
THESE FEW SIMPLE REFORMS WILL FUNDAMENTALLY AND PERMANENTLY ALTER THE DYNAMIC OF BRITISH POLITICS. ANY GOVERNMENT DELIBERATELY IGNORING PUBLIC OPINION IN ORDER TO PURSUE ITS OWN UNDEMOCRATIC AGENDA WILL BE QUICKLY BROUGHT TO HEEL — AND WITHOUT UNDERMINING OUR FAMILIAR AND SETTLED PARTY-BASED SYSTEM.
REFERENDUM DEMOCRACY : PATH TO A FAIRER, HAPPIER BRITAIN
The transition to a referendum democracy WITH A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION will be a powerful unifying force, establishing a political system in Britain that will enable the significant issues of political and cultural life (that can cause tension and division) to be resolved democratically, by way of simple referendum vote — and without undermining our settled party-based system.
The result of each referendum will simply be added to the constitution, as an amendment. Each amendment will be a CONSTITUTIONALLY BINDING (not merely 'advisory') DIRECT INSTRUCTION TO ALL FUTURE GOVERNMENTS to implement the referendum result unchanged, undiluted, and in its entirety.
The constitution itself will also only be subject to change by subsequent referendums, NOT by the policies of subsequent governments. Any laws passed by any government seeking to set aside any rights granted to the people in the constitution will be automatically declared null and void by the UK Supreme Court.
To prevent constant repeat referendums on the same issue, opposition parties will also be prohibited from calling a referendum on essentially the same subject more than once every 10 years.
Britain will be on a firm footing, ready to face the challenges and embrace the opportunities of a more democratic, fairer future.
REFERENDUM DEMOCRACY : A REAL SAY FOR OPPOSITION PARTIES
These fundamental reforms will establish an ongoing REAL say for opposition parties. For e.g. the simple right to call a national referendum would have allowed UKIP, as a 4th-placed party, to raise and resolve the EU issue decades ago! Under this new constitutional settlement, each year will bring new opportunities for opposition parties to raise and democratically resolve issues of significant public concern.
In the politics of the future, rather than spending many futile years endlessly raising issues with a government majority that never listens, opposition parties will be able to take their message DIRECT to the electorate for a decision at the ballot box. Parties winning their referendum will then move immediately from mere talk to exercising real power as they set about implementing their winning referendum outcome.
REFERENDUM DEMOCRACY : THE POLITICS OF THE FUTURE
In this way, the fundamental political, economic, personal and civic rights of ordinary people will be protected from erosion by future governments. The British people themselves will finally be able to genuinely determine the key aspects of democratic, economic and cultural life in Britain. PERMANENTLY.