The good ship HMS UK - Parliament no longer at the helm?

beaujolais-nouveau

I wonder if we - the hoi polloi - should do something about this.

• Lord Mandelson is now the de facto Deputy Prime Minister
• Bank bail-outs 1, 2 and 3 were organised by the so-called special advisers steered by career bankers
• Bank bail-outs put into effect without either Parliamentary scrutiny or oversight
• UK national borrowing now equivalent to an entire year's GDP, and counting
• Our children and grand-children will be paying for this for generations, despite our elected representatives having no say in what has been done

This is from comment 528 on Peston's blog of 27 February 2009 ("HBOS: Strong men will weep"),

these "advisers" who have conceived and delivered Bail-out Number One ( capitalisation and credit guarantees), Bail-out Number Two and Bail-out Number Three ( extended liquidity schemes, asset purchases, asset guarantees). Tell us about Robin Budenburg ( UBS), David Mayhew and Naguib Kheraj ( JP Morgan) and Peter Sands ( Standard Chartered) Tim Sykes ( Execution) and Charles Randall ( Slaughter and May) who got Number One rolling with Baroness Vadera, Lord Myners etc. Then tell us about James Leigh-Pemberton, Phillip Remnant, Ewen Stevenson, Sebastian Grigg ( Credit Suisse), Anshu Jain, Ivor Dunbar,Tadhg Flood,Charlie Foreman ( Deutsche Bank) Chris Williams and his army from Citigroup on Numbers Two and Three. ... John Kingman and Tom Scholar [director of nationalised NR]

That's an awful lot of bankers grabbing at the helm, and I don't believe that being a banker makes you capable of running a Parliamentary democracy instead of - and without reference to - the Members of Parliament.

My MP is useless - a Blairite to his fingertips, supported the illegal invasion of Iraq and the abolition of Parliament bill.

How do we get the running of the country dragged back to the House of Commons?

agent_orange_2

You've got yourself under the illusion that a vote every 4-5 years makes this
country democratic

beaujolais-nouveau

agent_orange wrote: »

You've got yourself under the illusion that a vote every 4-5 years makes this country democratic

Red herring. I am not under any illusion - a parliamentary democracy is the least-worst option - but ZanuLabour has created the current crisis.

Wookster

Face it, labour are so far up the banker's @rses that you can't tell where they end and the bankers begin.

beaujolais-nouveau wrote: »

How do we get the running of the country dragged back to the House of Commons?

Election. Now.

slipthru

Wookster wrote: »

Face it, labour are so far up the banker's @rses that you can't tell where they end and the bankers begin.



Election. Now.

Don't you thing the tories would be just as far up the banker's @rses though?

CLAPTON

We have always had a basically prime minister / cabinet system of government with occasional votes in parliament and the 4/5 year general election.

It's both a strength (allows quick action at times, is capable of resisting mob pressure) and a weakness (too much power in the PM and unelected officials).

I can't see any real pressure for change as alternatives have their own problems too.

beaujolais-nouveau

CLAPTON wrote: »

We have always had a basically prime minister / cabinet system of government with occasional votes in parliament and the 4/5 year general election.

But under Blair Cabinet meetings turned into cosy, unminuted fireside chats. Much easier to manipulate decisions or stifle debate, eg why anyone thought that an illegal invasion of a sovereign country was OK.

CLAPTON wrote: »

It's both a strength (allows quick action at times, is capable of resisting mob pressure) and a weakness (too much power in the PM and unelected officials).

But under Brown, the Banking Bill was quietly amended - without fanfare - so that the Government no longer has to tell the electorate how much new money it is printing.

CLAPTON wrote: »

I can't see any real pressure for change as alternatives have their own problems too.

I am sure that Mugabe and friends say that all the time. Why feed the people when, with the money, you could live in a palatial residence and throw lavish birthday parties for your mates.

CLAPTON

beaujolais-nouveau wrote: »

But under Blair Cabinet meetings turned into cosy, unminuted fireside chats. Much easier to manipulate decisions or stifle debate, eg why anyone thought that an illegal invasion of a sovereign country was OK.



But under Brown, the Banking Bill was quietly amended - without fanfare - so that the Government no longer has to tell the electorate how much new money it is printing.



I am sure that Mugabe and friends say that all the time. Why feed the people when, with the money, you could live in a palatial residence and throw lavish birthday parties for your mates.

Although I may well agree with some of what you say although I think your examples are a little bizarre...

whatever you think about Iraq, it was one of the few things that parliament actually voted on.

I wasn't aware about the new finance bill but I can't really see how the money supply can be kept secret for long

I've no idea why you mention Mugabe... my point is that it's not easy to see a better structure.. many of the current diffiuclites come down to individuals and not necessarily to the system.

Old_Slaphead

beaujolais-nouveau wrote: »

Red herring. I am not under any illusion - a parliamentary democracy is the least-worst option - but ZanuLabour has created the current crisis.

Don't think Clown's quite in E-ba-gum's league yet but I do like your idea for the change of New Labour moniker.

chucky

CLAPTON wrote: »

I've no idea why you mention Mugabe... my point is that it's not easy to see a better structure.. many of the current diffiuclites come down to individuals and not necessarily to the system.

people who compare the UK with Zimbabwe in this context are ignorant to the extreme

itsnever2lateisit?

Isn't our system an 'elected dictatorship'?

For a committee to be effective it needs to consist of an odd number of people

To be efficient, it should consist of as few people as possible


and three's a crowd:D