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Summary
The UK remains one of the world's oldest democracies, and has been a role model
for countries across the world to copy. Yet at the same time, UK citizens lack
both a constitution and bill and rights - something that the first 'Americans'
dealt with some two centuries ago.
One real problem with the UK Parlimment is that of time, MP's only 'sit' in
Parliament for around haft the year, and thus many bills which would benefit the
UK are never passed. In a fast paced world, does it seem justified for 'public
servents' to only serve the public for 50% of the year?
Voter apathy continues to remain a critical problem in the UK - with voting down
to around 60% in general elections, and a pitiful 20-30% at Local or European
elections. Unless something drastic changes, the UK will likely follow the
pattern of the USA where barely 1 in 2 people bother to cast their vote at
National elections.
Proposals
The following proposals outline some of my ideas on improving UK democracy. A
few ideas may seem a bit 'wild' to some people, but I believe it is only a
matter of time before mainstream social 'think-tanks' similarly start to suggest
such ideas.
Index
Parliament - House of
Commons
The
Second Chamber
Constitution/Bill of Rights
Voting
The UK Parliament currently only 'sits' for
around 26 weeks of each year. In most people's minds this is an insult.
The irony is that at the end of each legislative year (usually late July), MPs
(from all parties) complain that there was 'sadly not enough time' to push
forward and have new policies enacted. What a crazy situation this is ! How can
MP's continue to claim that they deserve haft the year off, and at the same time
complain that they never had the time to debate things in enough depth and
'achieve' more positive legislature for the citizens they serve?
Consider this, should Parliament ever be closed ? Why should we not have MP's
who are OUR SERVENTS, working a standard 48 week year. As for 'party
conferences' and other outside political/work activities, that is entirely for
each individual MP to squeeze into their schedule - they should not be given
haft the year off to earn extra income elsewhere.
Closed for haft the year
House of Lords - the Second chamber
Why exactly is there a second tier of decision makers? What is it about the public service that makes it necessary for mulitple ties of what is effectively 'management' and thus enormous un-necessary cost?
When ever anyone puts forward this
question to MPs on Television/Radio, I have tended to hear the following
"...ohh, we need another chamber to balance things out, otherwise it would be
dreadful...". This atittude is absolute nonsense.
The House of Lords is an outdated institution, one that needs to be entirely
replaced. Doubtless there are many amongst the political and social elite who
would be most upset if the Lords' were kicked out. Yet it is something that will
come to an end, sooner or later this century. Even though some progress has been
made - especially in regards to hereditory peers, so much more needs to be done.
A replacement?
Once again, the UK should look across to the USA for a fine example. The US
senate is an excellant 'top tier' of government - entirely selected by the
people, for the people. With around 100 Senators this top level house is both
stream lined and infinately more efficient than the UK house of Lords - which as
most people realise, is usually 90% empty.
Written Constitution/Bill of Rights
A written constitution - written
in modern day English, not something from a thousand years ago ( the Magna Carta
- which fails to address the issues of the 21'st century),
Bill of rights - a clear
*It remains remarkable that the break away republic - The United States of
America has both these basic things, yet UK 'subjects' are still without any
official basic rights as such.
Responsibilities - a clear outline of what each 'citizen' is expected to
contribute/act in society as a collective.
UK Citizens deserve a Bill of Rights for the 21'st century
Voting
A number of things should be done with regards to voting in Local, National, and
European elections. The overall aim is to increase the rights of people to vote,
and hopefully inspire more people to participate in elections - if only to tick
the box 'none of the above'.
1. All members of the electorate should be given 'votes by post' by default,
unless they specifically wish 'to vote in public on the day'.
In modern day society it makes sense to make things 'convienient' for the
average citizen (why would anyone argue against this always surprises me). As
has been seen in European elections in 2004, more people will vote ballots are
done using postal voting as the default procedure.
2. Voting should be compulsory - as is the case in a number of countries such as
Australia. I would normally be against this idea, except when my third proposal
is taken into account.
3. At the bottom of EVERY voting form should be a box 'None of the above'.
This is something I am very serious about, in many cases people are so disgusted
with most mainstream politicians that they simply never vote at all.
Your average voter will not
'spoil' their ballot paper (although I have once), so a 'none of the above' box
will give each voter the opportunity to make it clear to all those who stand for
government that someone believes none of the candidates are acceptable*.
*it would be fascinating to watch election night, if some 15-40% of the
electorate votes for 'none of the above'. How would the usually deceitful and
non-straight answer politicians respond to the media about such an outcome?
4. The voting age should be lowered from 18 to 16. It remains an insult that you
can 'die for your country in battle', get married, work full time, and make
babies, yet you are not allowed to vote. It remains vital that UK revises it's
concept of an 'age of majority' to 16**
** If you disagree with my proposed 'age of majority' as being revised to 16,
then I guess you also believe people should not be allowed to have sex, or join
the Armed Forces until the age of 18 ?
Vote 'None of the Above' if you so wish
The UK's notion of Democracy is
somewhat outdated and needs a major update to bring things into the 21'st
century. The most important change necessary is that of making Parliament 'full
time', rather the current insulting situation whereby members only sit for
around haft the year. Some changes to voting practices certainly need
implementing
It is shocking to think that is it only because of our membership of the
European Union that UK citizens have any 'rights' at all. Is it now time
that a group of people sat down and constructed a write
As citizens of the UK, do we not all deserve a better form of government that we
currently have, or is this the best we can expect?
Links
UK Parliament : Official site, very
useful as a starting point for reference material on the UK democratic process
E-Democracy: UK govt. site devoted
to furthering democracy via online facilities
Foreign sites...
USA House of Rep. : The House of
Representatives (equivilent of our house of commons)
USA Senate : Official site, covering all
the latest news - very nice site.
Congress.org : Interesting
website, very much devoted to keeping up to date with what local
senators/congressman are up to.
other sites...
Open Democracy : A
site devoted for 'free thinking', many articles/discussion area for every issue
you can imagine.
Ratifiers for Democracy : A
fascinating site dealing with the history of Democracy, the present situation,
and future possibilities
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Page last updated :
23/07/2004
