10
May
Yesterday
we a letter from the charity we support letting know how much extra money they
made from the tax claim as part of our donations to them; £156 in tax they
claimed. It seems well worth it being able to allow them to do this. Under the
laws that allow this, every year they have to write and let us know just how
much they made from sales of the items and the amount of tax claimed back.
We’re pleased to help out in this way.
A
few posts on FaceBook last night mentioned there were riots in London against
the new government. BBC News 24 is playing it down this morning but I’m
wondering if there may be more in the story. In 1784 when the French Revolution
began, there were fears within the British establishment that something similar
would happen here too. So far it hasn’t, although it came close I think when
Mad Maggie brought in the poll tax. Will Saturday’s violence spread and bring
the feared British Revolution I wonder?
If
it does the main reason for it happening is the election result from last week.
Last night I was on FaceBook if I would feel the same if Labour had majority
and not the Tories. Well, yes I would actually, even though I voted Labour last
week. We are supposed to be living in a democracy, and we are in as much as we
allowed to vote for our government. But do we really have a full democracy
here? Last week’s results say not.
A
look at just two party results show how far things are from a real democracy.
UKIP polled around 25% of the vote and only got one MP. The LibDems got around
12% but get 8 MPS. The main two parties; The Tories got 37% of the vote, yet
have over 326 PMs. Labour 31%, and 230(ish) MPs. The Tories will claim it shows
democracy at work, the Labour party would agree. So would SNP, which is fair
enough in Scotland, but their 5% on the UK vote giving them 56 seats can’t be
justified at all. We need a fairer electoral method.
Four
years ago we had a referendum on the issue and it lead to the keep the current
system. If another was held now, and I can’t see it happening in the parliament,
I think things would be much different. One of the possibilities is proportional
representation, and that may seem fairer all round with each party getting a percentage
of MPS in line with their share of the vote.
Of
course, we could then end up like Italy and so many other countries where
post-election wheeling and dealer goes on behind closed doors. That works until
one lot stubs their toes and brings the whole lot down. And yet there has to be
a fairer way than what we currently have. For the next five years we will live in
an elected dictatorship with no opposition to speak of. Ironic really when you
consider that this weekend we celebrate the defeat of another elected
dictatorship in Germany!
Part
of the problem as I see it is that we have no ‘big names’ in any of the
parties. People like Blair, Brown, Thatcher, Heseltine, Ashdown and so on. They
have all gone and some would say, ‘Thank God for that.’ I can sympathise with
that. But surely there must be some in the back ground coming through; we can
only hope.
Today’s
photo then is one I got a few years ago …
A twisted bridge in Covent Garden, but is our British democracy also as twisted?
Today
funny …
A bloke goes to the doctor and says: "Doc, I've
got a lettuce stuck up my bum". The doctor has a feel about and says:
"I'm sorry sir, but this is just the tip of the iceberg."
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