Hazel Blears gives her verdict on the Labour party economic performance.

codger

A decade ago, I spent some time in Small Town USA. It was called Boulder City, close to the Nevada / Arizona border. The community is averagely-prosperous, averagely educated, averagely everything.

A routine local Council meeting occurred during my sojourn there. Thinking it would attract the same interest as a routine local Council meeting anywhere in the UK, I was surprised at the turn-out: so many people, the meeting was relayed on TV screens outside.

When I remarked on the difference between UK small town political affairs and this particular US small town, I was met with the response: "You mean your people aren't interested in democracy?"

Which kind of sums up the tragedy of the present UK situation.

I bet we'd pack the Town Halls, and the voting booths, because yes, of course we're interested.

Nothing would give countless thousands of us greater cause for celebration than to see intelligent, responsible and responsive governance.

We're not cynics, we're definitely not apathetic, and we've certainly not given up on democracy.

The problem seems to be that democracy -- if defined in terms of governance, as it must surely be -- has given up on us.

By and large, the democratically elected neither "connect", nor "listen", nor even begin to "act" in a way that encourages a visit to the local Council meeting, or an X on a general election ballot paper.

And every day, with every fatuous appearance of self-serving apologists like Ms Blears, the diminishing reality of democracy widens a vacuum into which will step the extremist, the prejudiced, and maybe even, the downright mad.

I know I laugh about the antics of puppets like Blears. As do so many others. But I'm not sure if humour alone is protection enough or even, come to think of it, even appropriate. Trouble is, I can't think of any other reaction. . .

Cannon_Fodder

Crying is the alternative...

avinabacca

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Thankfully we now have representation and if you want to change the system, you can run as an mp yourself.

Don't want to? Just want to hate? Seems a countrywide sport.

Cracking comment, Lotus-eater - post of the day!!! :T


Here's an interesting experiment - next time you encounter someone moaning about the state of the government/country/youth of today, etc, wait for them to finish and then ask them what they personally have done to try and make things better.

It's really surprising how many people who claim to love-their-country-but-hate-to-see-it-go-down-the-pan, or whatever, can't be bothered to get up off their a*ses and do something about it....... :rolleyes:

codger

The difficulty with going forth to stand as an MP (and to lesser extent, a local Councillor) is that tribalism has not only suffused the entire system, tribalism actually payrolls it.

You've got relatives / friends numerically equal to the droves of political party supporters that go door-knocking, leafleting, arranging car pick-ups to ferry voters to the polling booths????????

Good for you. If you have.

Sadly, most "independents" haven't.

Equally sadly, it's the case that this country remains conservative (small 'c') by nature, and time and again the mass electorate is swayed by assurances from tribal leaders, tribal followers, that only-they-can-do-anything-in-government, so why waste your vote on an Independent who has no back-up, no resources?

Your chances may improve slightly if you're another Martin Bell, or a courageous hospital consultant campaigning on a single-issue focused upon by an entire community.

They may also improve if you're a bigot and extremist, because you'll certainly tap into that particular constituency of belief. Otherwise:

The notion that the only impediment to Mr Smith going to Werstminster must be Mr Smith himself is, sadly, 100% false.

tomstickland

As a start we should take an active and critical interest in what is going on.
Look at how many posts an X-Factor thread gets compared with, say, ID cards.

Next time someone complains about the state of country ask them if they find politics interesting.