War-on-Freedom.com

Let's first agree how our political system falls short of democracy:

1 Our FPTP system leaves us with a choice between the Opposition Leader and the PM whose 2 inner circle make all the decisions except the few which need to be approved by Parliament when 3 90% of MPs vote along party lines rather than for their constituents and 4 The makeup of the Commons isn't proportional to the electorate's voting nevermind 5 the electorate's wishes.

Most commentators agree this is closer to an elected dictatorship than a democracy.

I've mentioned previously that the AV+ & STV electoral systems can fix 4, 5 and to some degree, 1.

3 is the trickiest to fix. Secret ballots would be infinitely better than what we have now but I think that ultimately the public should be able to find out how their MPs voted. I would approve secret ballots to be revealed when the election is announced after which the new MPs should vote on whether to return to open ballots.

That leaves 1 & 2 for which I also have a solution: get MPs to elect the Prime Minister and inner circle after the election. In the absence of the Blair & Howard show, elections would become much more focussed on issues and local candidates. The PM & inner circle would be elected on merit rather than loyalty to a party or leader. This system could prevent deals being made.

This would be a form of "basis democracy" (according to my friend Silke).

In other words, we get a choice (and with STV a wide choice) of candidates who WE trust to a) represent us locally as well as b) elect the leaders.

Posted by Dave at 06:44 PM | Permalink

I have just watched the best documentary I have ever seen, about Robert McNamara, a brilliant man who courted controversy...
The film covers his WWII job of more efficiently bombing Tokyo, to his being made the first president of Ford outside the family, to his recruitment as Secreatary of Defense 5 weeks later by JFK, his deep involvement with the Cuban Missile crisis and his even deeper involvement in the build-up of US forces in the Vietnam War.

In his later years, McNamara is a compelling speaker with an apparent need to impart some lessons of humility that he so painfully learned.

The documentary was made in 2002-2003 and without one mention of Iraq, one gets the impression that McNamara was hoping that what he had learnt, especially from the mistakes he had made, could prevent similar disasters.

In particular, McNamara comments on the US inability in the 60s to persuade allies to agree on the need for conflict.

The "Fog of War" refers to the inability of anyone to effectively manage something as complex as a war. The emotional resonance of the film is helped by an original soundtrack by Philip Glass.

Posted by Dave at 09:07 PM | Permalink

Not one to throw around excessive accusations, I was interested that someone posted an academic's list of defining characteristics:

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed
to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

I'd say Neo Labour are guilty of 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 and maybe 14.
9.5/14 = 67% fascist?

Of course, Dr Britt missed out issuing of ID papers (although our corresponding mass surveillance network wasn't possible in Suharto's time), creating new laws for unlimited government power and locking up political opponents.

Posted by Dave at 04:37 AM | Permalink

Tony Blair has rewarded 3/4 of those who donated £50k+ to Neo Labour under the Honours system. If you can spare a cool million, you can guarantee yourself a peerage or knighthood.

Neo Labour donors are 3 times more likely to rewarded than Tory donors. Chances of this being coincidental are less than 3 in 1000.

It gets worse - Blair just abolished the committee whose job it is to prevent abuse of the system.

Why am I not surprised?

Link to Sunday Times article

Posted by Dave at 05:10 AM | Permalink

As most of you know, the Government's Orwellian Database Bill is back on the agenda and due to be voted on in a couple of weeks. The Government indefensibly continue to call it the National Identity Card Bill, even though the Lords Committee on the Constitution called it "misleading". One wonders what the Government have to hide.

Whilst the Bill is the same monstrosity that the Government tried (and nearly succeeded) to rush through Parliament last session, the Government's justification for this massive intrusion into our privacy has shifted yet again.

No longer confident of selling the "It will help combat terrorism and illegal immigration" lies, the Government has switched to telling us that this clampdown will save us £1.3 billion a year in identity theft.

Hopefully, most of you will not be surprised to learn that this is yet another deliberate deception by Neo Labour. A perfectly operational ID Card scheme could only save £35 million of that £1.3 billion!

Even though the only published costing of the scheme shows that it's likely to cost a family of four around £1000, it is by no means certain that the Bill will be defeated.
Blair's effective majority of 72 (Sinn Fein never vote) means that even if the 80% of Conservatives, 50 Labour rebels and ALL the Liberal Democrats oppose the Bill, it will probably still pass into law. This is because nearly all Labour MPs do what Blair tells them. One embarrassing example is Dawn "Brain-Slug" Primarolo, MP for Bristol South, who has never voted against the Government despite over 700 opportunities.

Therefore it is our duty to make our representatives doubt this Bill, to vote against it if possible, or otherwise to stay away.
The newly renamed WriteToThem website (formerly FaxYourMP) is the easiest way to do this. All you need is 5 minutes and your postal & email addresses. I even wrote a standard letter for you to cut & paste, though please make alterations if you have time.

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I wonder if you are as concerned as I am about the Government's National Identity Card Bill:
- It will significantly shift control away from an already disempowered public, according to the Lords Committee on the Constitution.
- Our Unique Identity Numbers will allow any future government and even the CIA virtually unlimited access into our private lives.
- The only published costing of the scheme shows that it's likely to cost a family of four around £1000.
- The Government's track record on IT projects (eg CSA & NHS databases) is appalling - and these are far simpler projects.
- Biometric technology is unproven on such a scale and the current level of technology is clearly unsuitable.
- Secondary Legislation would allow things like RFID tags in the Cards to track our day-to-day movements.
- Our democracy doesn't work well enough to stop function creep like forcing ISPs to allow all our internet activities to be indexed and searched by any future government.
- The existing powers of the police to harrass people to identify themselves biometrically will likely lead to a Police State.
- The ability to persecute minorities, protestors, people hiding from abusers etc would be unprecedented.
- None of the Government's shifting justifications for the Bill stand up to scrutiny.

For all these reasons, will you please vote against the Bill in all subsequent Readings and do your best to prevent similar schemes eg e-passports being introduced under "royal prerogative"?

Posted by Dave at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)