John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY JOHN WRIGHT IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“the hard-fought constitutional battle over whether the country is to be ruled by executive fiat or parliamentary democracy”
"The Mammoth Stress Test of British Democracy"
What democracy? I don't see one in Britain.
First, any party rules in the British Parliament with the support of 30-something percent of votes, and it is even called a “majority government.”
Second, Johnson is not even elected, yet gets to have the title and powers of Prime Minister.
He's there by a majority vote of the members of the Conservative Party whose membership is about 160 thousand out of a population of around 65 million.
And he is able to ruthlessly push for the most consequential change that could be imagined. Even bending laws and traditions.
I don't see a scrap of democracy in evidence.
The fact is for virtually all of our "Western democracies" there are comparably unpleasant truths. Our governments were set up for stability and the service of an establishment, not for democracy.
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Response to another comment:
"The Queen" question is a very important one. Boris Johnson has Her permission but the Supreme Court's condemnation?
Worse than confusing, I think.
I believe what we are seeing with The Queen vis-a-vis Blair's newly-constructed Supreme Court is a set of puzzle pieces which no longer together.
Not so much a question of "democracy" as just old and new institutions crudely patched together so that it is not clear whether they even work.
This whole matter of Brexit sure is highlighting the very worst in Britain's political institutions.
I'm against it entirely for many reasons, but especially the fact that post-EU Britain will become even a worse toady to America.
Trumpian America will extract a terrible price for any new trade agreement and other institutional arrangements. There are no loyalties or traditions or decencies or even ethics to be found in Trump and Company. And Britain will have no choice but to pay the price demanded.
So, the British people, who thought they were voting against being tied to a larger political entity like the EU, are going to discover that they effectively voted just for switching to another, and I think one a whole lot harsher and less sympathetic.
Although, it could be argued that it is not possible to become more grovelling than "the special relationship" already has made Britain for decades, I think that would be wrong. There are no limits with the Trump gang functioning more as a mafia than as a government.
As to your hope about the electorate getting rid of the lot of them in elections, I’m sure you know those kinds of things just do not happen.
As I said in my post above, all of our Western governments were set up for stability and the service of an establishment, not for democracy.
