UK Parliament to be Made Redundant? 607
caluml writes "The Guardian is reporting that the current UK government is trying to sneak a new law though in an innocuously named bill called 'The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill,' which would get rid of that pesky, interfering need to put laws to the Houses of Commons and Lords to approve. There is already the Parliament Act that can be used to force laws through, which was used recently for the hunting bill. " The original coverage is a bit old but the bill is still being tossed around in parliament. The text of the bill is also available via the UK Parliament website.
The Parliament Act. (Score:4, Informative)
Anything that goes through the parliament act will generate enough publicity for the public to kick up a fuss about it if they don't like it anyway.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Interesting)
They wish to preserve the legacy of representation and rule of law that are initiated with the Magna Carta, and succeeding 800 years of parliamentary rule. In fact, many of the Lord
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Insightful)
Has he forgotten that England has suffered terrorism before, and survived without removing everyone's civil liberties? Yes [wikipedia.org], there [google.com] have [google.com] been [google.com] terrorists in the past. *
* Subject to your point of view.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, yes, of course. However, as they don't have to worry about being re-elected, they can say what they think and vote for what they really think is in the nation's best interest instead of pandering to lobbyists and campaign contributors. In that sense, at least, they're more likely to be impartial than an elected official.
It's the same idea as the Romans used in having members of their Senate (Their "conscript fathers" as they were sometimes called.) serve for life. By taking away the need to curry favor for re-election, they were expected to be able to put themselves above the special interest groups and work only for the good of the state. To some extent, it worked, because the senators took their responsibilities seriously.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Insightful)
No, I'm not saying that, and you're not crazy. What I was saying is that because the Lords don't have to worry about re-election, they can vote for what they think is in the country's best interest. Naturally, being human, they also take their own interests into consideration, but they don't have t
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree with you in general, however, that their own interests are going to come first. I don't consider this the best of all ways to run a government, but it does seem to work OK. I don't consider it to be broke, and see no reason to tinker with it.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Insightful)
Granted. Now the real question: How does that separate them from the elected types?
Note: Getting re-elected is still their own interest, so anyone saying "elected officials are accountable to the voters" automatically fails.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:4, Insightful)
You may have seen in recent years how easy it is to cower the electorate with the thread of 'terrorists.' The majority is willing to give up personal freedoms in order for the government to protect them from a spectre. If the majority feels this way, and the upper house is elected by any means then it becomes easy to pass such laws.
Oh, and don't say that a codified constitution would protect the people from such things. As we can see in the USA, the constitution must be interpreted by individuals, and these individuals are susceptible to the influences of their time.
I have had the opportunity to observe the debate in both houses during my time in London, and met with members of both houses. At the end of the experience, I am usually left wondering why we put up with the house of commons. Individually, I know a few members who are rational and reasonable individuals, but when you put them together you get a room full of idiots. I believe Gilbert and Sullivan said it best when they said each MP 'has got to leave his brain outside.'
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:5, Interesting)
Arguably so, but at the moment, only a small proportion of the Lords are hereditaries (parent is forgetting the Lords reform over the last few parliaments). The rest are appointed, and not a few after having given large sums of cash to the Labour Party - but that's another discussion.
The balance of power, however, is held by approx 160 independent Lords - no party alignment. And by and large, they do a very good job, and refuse to be treated as lobby fodder by the Government with its powers of appointment to powerful ministries.
It's some comment on the current state of affairs that an unelected body with a proportion there by heriditary right is doing a better, more transparent, more thoughtful job than the elected one...
US Senate as an unelected body (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, the whole house of review concept was always meant to be a non-elected body.
One of the major checks and balances built into the US constitution was that the Senate was unelected. They founders thought it would be a huge error to have both houses elected--the point of the Senate was an unelected body that was separated from politics. (Which is why certain types of decisions pass through the Senate--such as the approval of judge appointments.)
All that became horribly messed up by the direct election of Senators. Since they are now directly elected, but still have powers that were granted to them based on the idea that they weren't directly elected, they've completely disbalanced the system. (The only thing that makes the Senate work as a house of review is the fact that the constituency borders, since they're states, cannot be artificially gerrymandered. It'd be cool if they were elected in a different system, a change I'm open to.)
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree. What you describe ultimately ends up being a tyranny of the majority, especially with the bipartisan system. In a true participatory democracy, most aspects of government would be delegated to local government, which would act through frequent broad-based referendums.
The problem is that there are more than two sides to most issues. And with the current political system, both the Democrats and Republicans are simply different factions of the American business party--since their campaign funding, an
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Interesting)
In many ways I think a more pragmatic view of democracy is warranted: democracy is simply a to
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:5, Insightful)
The UK system of government undoubtedly has its share of problems, but the House of Lords isn't it.
Except for the fact that it's not a sort of thing that you can just create (it's more something that you can only have, if it's been in existence since before the rest of the government formed) I'd say that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to do something like that here, in my more exasperated moments. In theory, it's a pretty good idea -- a bunch of people who aren't subject to the whims of fat-walleted corporate/PAC pimps and who have no other function in the government aside from taking the longest possible view. (Arguably this is the function of the USSC here, I suppose.)
The purpose that our Senate was originally supposed to serve, namely to be a brake on the other half of the Legislature, it seems to regularly fail to do; each party's House and Senate contingents seem to be in lock-step on all but the smallest details (you generally have to get down to the wording of particular bills to find differences between Senate [harvard.edu] and House [harvard.edu] versions, the intent is rarely very different on major issues). So I'm not sure that I would be dismissing the concept of a House of Lords so quickly. If I were a UK citizen (subject?) I'd be awfully reticent to throw away anything that might act as a brake on the rest of government, however anachronistic it might seem. If they were trying to drag the entire country back to the 17th century I might feel less cautious, but it doesn't seem like there's any evidence of that.
However bad you think your government is now, with enough meddling it could always get spectacularly worse in a hurry.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Informative)
Tony Blair is the legitimately elected MP representing Sedgefield. And he's also the legitimately elected leader of the Labour Party, as voted for by the MPs of that party. And you could quite reasonably argue that, as the leader and the "face" of Labour, his party's overall victory in the last three general elections is an additional (indirect) endorsement by British
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, we do have a written constitution. What we don't have is a codified constitution (our constitution is drawn from many sources). The grandparent poster is half right. The prime minister does have to be an MP, however they do not have to be a member of the House of Commons. The procedure for selecting a PM is roughly as follows:
Since the creation of Lords is one of the Monarch's Prerogative Powers, it is quite possible for her to select someone completely random, create them a peer, and then ask them to form a government. For the last couple of centuries or so it has been traditional for the monarch to invite the leader of the party with the most seats to form a government, since they are usually guaranteed support of the majority of the house.
If, at any point, the PM ceases to have the support of half of the house then a vote of no confidence can be passed. If this happens, a general election must be called and a new government elected. This can happen, for example, if they have a narrow majority and one of their members resigns or dies. At this point a by-election will be called, and their seat contested again. If someone from the opposition takes it then the government can lose its majority.
Re:Please explain... (Score:3, Insightful)
as an aside, that's the problem with the US govt right now. We NEED the senate to be appointed by state governments and not elected. Having senators elected sounds more dem
Re:Please explain... (Score:3, Insightful)
I already posted this, but its worth reposting IMHO...
They can decide if a law is really good or bad, not just fashionable.
Okay let me see if I got this straight here. You have a bunch of unelected rich kids who decide what becomes law or not in your country. And thats okay with you. To quote Michael Collins, how did you people ever get an empire? People with very little in common with the common man (and I know a couple of these space cadets personally, so trust me on this) who can't be sacked, whose
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Funny)
Wait a second. I thought that you guys had a Queen or something.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:2)
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:4, Informative)
In a theocracy, the church runs the government. In England, the government runs the church. As these both have the same entity running both the church and the government, it is easy to confuse them.
With England, however, the government runs the church because the church that used to claim authority (The Catholic Church) was asserting too much authority, so they got rid of it. And then, because it was expected at the time, they made their own church, which they have then continued to basically ignore.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed, technically, it is the Queen that rules Britain...the government that has been granted it's position continues to exist only because it promotes order within her realm and she is thus satisfied with it's function of keeping the country from falling into utter chaos. Technically. If that government were to grossly step out of line it is entirely within her authority to remove it, or at least bring it back in line.
Ultimately though, it comes down to the People. If they won't support the Queen in her actions then very quickly you'd either find her removed (given past examples in Britain, this would likely involve plenty of bloodshed and one dead monarch) or a slap on the wrist given and an illusion of a limitation of the Monarchy's powers (which would merely be the creation of a new government with expanded authority, that again merely exists because it keeps the Monarchy satisfied the nation is running properly...technically).
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:4, Interesting)
The public kicks up a fuss about LOTS of things, but they never get listened to. For example: Iraq, ID cards, school reforms...
The ID cards bill has been rejected by the Lords again and again, because frankly they're sane. But my understanding is this act could well be used to force it through, to the detriment of everyone.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:2)
Well, it's the sort of thing I notice, and I only heard about it yesterday. It's not exactly being debated much in the media here.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Informative)
1. Iraq war. People said no and protested, yet I see troops still there and even helping start it.
2. More people voted in Big brother than in the general election.. maybe it's just me.. but I don't think many people care about politics.
Shall we go on? Labour is taking the piss and trying to cut out everyone who's going "oi retards, you're fucking up the country!" and this is just another step on that ladder. Remember Hitler was a really nice bloke on TV, h
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:2)
RTFA - this is not about the parliament act (Score:5, Informative)
What is in question is this new proposed act, that allows any cabinet member to alter any piece of legislation by conducting a single vote with the minimum of debate or discussion. The parliament act is usually only used after ages of battling, so at least we are certain that MPs have looked at and understood what is being passed. With this new act, it would be very easy to sandwich scary ideas into an innoculous looking package, and sneak that through the vote. The worst case scenario is that one such scary bill would be a motion to alter this bill itself - and remove parliament from the process altogether.
Even if we trust the government not to abuse it, this is still a terrifyingly huge loophole. And in fact, the bill is currently *very* close to being passed. It only has a 1-hour final hearing in the commons, and then it's onto the Lords. And if the Lords don't cooperate, a truly malicious government can use the Parliament act to force it through....
Re:RTFA - this is not about the parliament act (Score:4, Informative)
*No*, that's the *status quo* (almost). The new Act will allow a cabinet member to alter any piece of legistlation *without recourse to parliament*. Ie, without a vote! Read it. Listen to the screams of those who have been attending the backwater committee stages that have been cooking this up. This is an unprecedented move to bypass parliament altogether to punish it for standing in the way of the government's 'reforms', hidden under the cloak of 'deregulation'. Only 'controversial' changes would have to be voted on in parliament, with the ministers themselves deciding what is 'controversial'! If this passes, Jim Murphy's name may well go down in history as the man who killed democracy in the UK.
If you think this sounds like hyperbole, just check it out yourself.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:5, Informative)
To separate out the two issues you're conflating:
The Parliament Act is there to prevent the unelected Lords from blocking legislation which the elected Commons has a mandate to implement. By convention this means the content of the goverment's election manifesto.
Now the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill means that not only will the Lords not be able to oppose Government policy (in the manifesto or not), this will be extended to the Commons.
Or, to put it in constitutional speak: the Executive usurps the power of the Legislature, and neuters the capacity of the Judiciary.
Yes, our freedom-loving government is plainly tired of all that mucking around attending Parliament, and persuading MPs to support its bright ideas. In future (so goes the vision), our beloved, trusted ministers will be able to amend, replace and repeal legislation by fiat. The only restrictions are that ministers can't impose new taxes (but can introduce new fees. Po-tay-to/Po-tah-to), or introduce prison sentences longer than 2 years.
So could HMG decide to make ID Cards entirely compulsory? Could they require all public services to be disposed of to PFI? Could they abolish the Scottish Parliament? Yes, Yes and Yes (they couldn't impose laws in devolved matters, but they could abolish the whole thing).
And the checks and balances on ministerial absolutism? Erm... none. The minister merely has to consider a vaguely written checklist and be personally satisfied that's it's a Good Idea overall. Because ministers are of course entirely impartial judges of their own proposals. It's already being called The Abolition of Parliament Act [toque.co.uk] as Parliament simply won't be able to scrutinise legislation in advance or block it. But it's also an Abolition of The Judiciary Act as the courts can't challenge Ministerial Orders after the fact on the basis of being disproportionate or removing freedoms and protections from the citizenry as long as the Minister can show that he/she has thought long and hard about it. Presumably the fact that Ministers are genetically incapable of thinking like this won't help...
Separation of Powers? We've Heard of It
Which, as the Executive can impose what the hell it likes without the checks and balances of an adversarial Parliament, can be entirely ignored except for the 3 months before an election.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:2)
Tradition. That's what England is: 1,000 years of tradition.
And the Parliament Acts appear to represent the first slow steps to eventually abolish the Lords. Don't hold your breath waiting though
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you looked at how the US Electoral College system works? They can appoint anyone they like as president.
Re:The Parliament Act. (Score:3, Insightful)
The US Senate wasn't elected for about 150 years. In theory it allowed Senators to be immune from political pressures and the public passions of the moment. In practice, as political parties in the US got more powerful the Senators became pawns of the state parties.
Still, I have to say the Lords have been doing Good Things for the most part lately, and maybe there's nothing inherentl
Pesky bureaucracy (Score:3, Funny)
And while you're at it, why waste time voting?
Let's get rid of that time-consuming thing...
Remember, remember... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Pesky bureaucracy (Score:2)
RTFA- the power falls to the Ministers, especially the Prime Minister. This doesn't get rid of that pesky bureaucracy- it does the exact opposite in fact. It makes the bureaucracy a bunch of petty dictators within their independant ministries.
Re:Pesky bureaucracy (Score:2)
That sucks... (Score:2)
One question is: who would actually be writing these laws that would go through without parliamentary approval, if not parliament?
This bill is truly dangerous (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think I need to write to my MP on this one: he's already strongly and publicly criticised the bill for the insult to democracy it is, and indeed a group of professors of law from our local university (which, for the benefit of US readers, means a lot of very highly placed academics in the UK) wrote to a national newspaper to express their support for his opposition. I do believe in contacting my representatives, but in this case his view seems pretty solidly on the right side of sane.
As for who wo
In COBN3T Britain (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In COBN3T Britain (Score:5, Funny)
You forgot the even-more-ironic second line [ingeb.org] to the chorus.
In Sov'yet Britain, Britannia waives the rules! Britons, ever ever shall be slaves to fools.
Re:In COBN3T Britain (Score:2)
New sig for me, thanks for that laugh
More accurate and equally applicable (Score:4, Funny)
Errr... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Errr... (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, I live in the UK! (Score:2, Interesting)
Check out saveparliament.org.uk too (Score:4, Informative)
From memory, it's basically: add or change any laws they feel like, as long as they don't raise taxes, or have jail sentances over 2 years.
And as for why the opposition parties and UK media aren't mentioning it, I have no idea.
Re:Check out saveparliament.org.uk too (Score:2, Informative)
See also...
http://www.libertycentral.org.uk/content/view/395/ index.php [libertycentral.org.uk]
Which shows an amendment the opposition proposed to protect the British constitution and civil liberties (nothing to do with business reform) from this bill and was rejected in its entirety by the government.
Which begs the question is why would the government want the ability to change the constitution without parliamentary approval?
Re:Check out saveparliament.org.uk too (Score:3, Informative)
They have. Here's some links:
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.stor y.page&obj_id=128487 [conservatives.com]
http://www.libdems.org.uk/government/story.html?id =9824 [libdems.org.uk]
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/ cmhansrd/cm060321/debtext/60321-05.htm#60321-05_sb hd3 [parliament.uk]
To those who don't know what is redundancy... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:To those who don't know what is redundancy... (Score:5, Funny)
You must be new here
From an American view (Score:2)
Re:From an American view (Score:3, Interesting)
Put in this way, in the last election the only campaign issues that were of any relevance to Scotland were the EC and Iraq. Everything else that Blair and Howard chuntered on about has been devolved to Holyrood.
Also I think, and
Re:From an American view (Score:3, Interesting)
We're not part of Great Britain, but we are a part of the British State. We're British citizens and have MPs and Lords at Westminster.
Unfortunately, due to our small number of MPs, we basically have one guy, Peter Hain the Northern Irish Secretary, dictating everything that happens here. e.g. 90% of the population are against the school reforms he's
take that america (Score:2, Funny)
oh shit, I'm in the uk
ok, now I'm confused, do I make a USA immigration application or start learning chinese?
"It's gonna get blown up anyway" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"It's gonna get blown up anyway" (Score:2)
Bloody MC (Score:5, Funny)
Once you take the power from the one true Sovereign, who has been selected by God to know what is right for this country, all of this havoc follows in due course.
I say: absolve the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and revert all power to HRH Elizabeth Regina.
We'll then all get along splendidly. (Or at least untill Charles takes the thrown.)
Re:Bloody MC (Score:3, Insightful)
You laugh, but even at his most old-fashioned and controversial, Charles's opinions usually make more sense to me than a lot of what the current lot have been doing. Frankly, we'd do better with the old-fashioned approach for the next few years...
Re:Bloody MC (Score:3, Funny)
[S. Ballmer] metaphor for a chair ('get the thrown back here')
Great Idea! (Score:2)
Maybe In Canada Too (Score:2, Offtopic)
Why is somone who is not democratically elected, in a political office.
Re:Maybe In Canada Too (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides, some people see an advantage of separating the Head of State from the Head of Government. In the US it would be refreshing to be able to have the Head of State present to solemnize some event, without having to invite the current idiot in the White House who will use the occasion to push whatever's presently on his political agenda.
US examples of head of state not head of gov. (Score:3, Interesting)
As I recall, the Texas Constitution cleverly made the Lieutenant Governor more powerful than the Governor (on the day to the day basis.) I suspect they wanted a head of state to be different from the head of government, but also to distract people from where power really lies.
Re:Maybe In Canada Too (Score:5, Funny)
Already in Canada (Score:4, Informative)
The Powers That Be in Canada, both Federal and Provincial, can already pass a law without running it by Parliament. It's called an Order in Council [about.com]. Theoretically an OIC is used for little things like political appointments, but it can be used for big things too.
If anybody objects, there is always the Notwithstanding Clause [justice.gc.ca] (it's Section 33). It was used for Bills 101 and 178 in Quebec, and Alberta keeps threatening to use it against same-sex marriage. It's been used a number of other times too.
...laura
Re:Already in Canada (Score:3, Informative)
The Queen? (Score:5, Interesting)
How Emperor Blair will rule without bureaucracy... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How Emperor Blair will rule without bureaucracy (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, and mod parent up.
To a non-brit.. (Score:2)
Re:To a non-brit.. (Score:2)
Constitution? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Constitution? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Constitution? (Score:5, Informative)
Absolutely Redundant... (Score:2, Funny)
And We Aren't? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's called Checks and Balances and it's why our government is still in operation (though many will argue its effectiveness). We separate the powers of law making between the senate and the house and give the president a veto. Wow, Redundant! We even have these crazy people that can even interpret these laws in crazy ways so as to fit the current times.
Recap: Bill goes through house
The same indeed (Score:3, Insightful)
Hello, George W. Bush.
Hm. (Score:4, Insightful)
[1]Note that I'm not equating Tony Blair to Hitler or Labour to the Nazis or anything, just an interesting co-incidence..
Re:Hm. (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that I'm so paranoid or anything to think that they don't want us to draw parallels here..
aka Hitler's 1933 Enabling Act (Score:3, Informative)
I am: I've just written to my local MP (who happens to be a conservative):
P is for Parliament (Score:2)
Why is this dangerous? (Score:4, Informative)
When my kid is in school learning about how great the US is, and how we're great because we're free, will they teach him that we're not actually free any longer because of a tacit approval of abdication of our rights? No. Because we have a "congress".
I wrote to my MP this morning (Score:4, Informative)
Dear David Drew,
I am hoping you can reassure me concerning the proposed Legislative and
Regulatory Reform (LRR) Bill which I saw reference to on TV over the
weekend and was featured on Radio 4 this week.
My understanding is that the Bill will enable Ministers to reform
legislation without referring directly to Parliament and that MPs and
Peers will not have the ability to modify problematic proposals in the
way they do at present.
Parliamentary scrutiny is at the heart of the democratic process and
any action that weakens the powers of influence of MPs is of great
concern to me.
Please can you help clarify what the Bill will allow and whether you
will be supporting or opposing it.
Yours sincerely...
Re:I wrote to my MP this morning (Score:3, Insightful)
I suggest everyone reading this writes to their own MP, though I recommend NOT using identical text.
Article 48? (Score:4, Informative)
To a large extent..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in the days of Margaret Thatcher, huge parliamentary majorities were won on minority votes thanks to the first past the post, 3 party system. If I remember rightly, Mrs. T held a majority in excess of 300 MPs with only 40% of the electorate voting for her. Tony Blair commanded about 35% of the vote when less than 50% of the electorate turned out.
With a three figure majority and the back-benches filled with career minded sheep, the government can get pretty much anything they want through so the new law is just icing on the cake. What worries me more is the sort of people they hang with. According to the treasury web site [hm-treasury.gov.uk], the following are being flown in by Gordon Brown, the next Prime Minister, to give advice on business in New Britain:
Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO, LVMH
Lord Browne, Group Chief Executive, BP
Dr Jean-Pierre Garnier, CEO, GlaxoSmithKline
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation
Sir Ka-shing Li, Chairman of the Board, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd
Sir Terry Leahy, CEO, Tesco
Sir John Rose, CEO, Rolls Royce
Robert Rubin, Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup Inc
Lee Scott, President and CEO, Wal-Mart
Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group
Meg Whitman, President and CEO, eBay
James Wolfensohn, Special Envoy for Disengagement and Former President of the World Bank
Yep, that's right. In order to improve the business environment for entrepreneurs and encourage opportunity among the lower classes, Brown is freighting in a convicted monopolist and a horde of bankers and fat-cats some of which are heads of corporations that have been criticised for predatory and/or unfair practises. Hmmmm.. Can't wait 'til the advice starts flowing. "Well everyone, what's the best thing to encourage competition in business"? Patents for everything and tax cuts for the exceptionally rich? Sure thing, no problem now that I can push it through Parliament without a proper debate. Seat in the House of Lords? Two million to you guv but make it untraceable, know what I mean?
Sick country man, a really sick country.
There's no money in the House of Lords these days (Score:4, Funny)
Executive Orders... (Score:4, Insightful)
People are discussing the mechanisms in the UK and Canada to pass a law w/o running it thru parliment, and my understanding of these mechanisms is that they work much like "Executive Orders" do in the US.
The president can sign an executive order and it becomes the law of the land. It can be circumvented by Congress and the Supreme Court, but not easily.
Re:American Dictator (Score:3, Interesting)
Bush's signing statements are his attempt to influence that interpretation.
The U.S. and England are both going down the tubes thanks to the 'global' war on terror.
Re:American Dictator (Score:3, Interesting)
You act like no president has ever nominated supr
Re:American Dictator (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah yes, the good old days of respect for government. Like when FDR decided that if the Supreme Court rejected his policies, he'd just make it bigger (using his own appointments) until the required number of justices could reach an agreement. Or when pretty much every administration since the creation of the FBI has used that agency to spy on political enemies. Or endle
Re:American Dictator (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:American Dictator (Score:3, Insightful)
Let me say I'm SHOCKED that when you google "gore won recount" you get sites that say that. Why, according to google you get 667,000 of them! But when you type "bush won recount" you get 2,230,000 hits.
What's that tell us? Absolutely nothing. That's the stupidest metric in the world. Read the articles, read the standards, and read the recounts. The data is out there, and analyzed by multiple organization. Hell, check Wikipedia even, if
Re:Paranoia (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, if you protest outside the Houses of Parliament, you're now breaking the law and subject to arrest, for a start.
Re:Hopefully not offtopic... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually (Score:3, Informative)
Not according to nationmaster [nationmaster.com]. Which, 'compiles statistics from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD.'
Murders (per capita).
US #24 with 0.042802 per 1,000 people
UK #46 with 0.0140633 per 1,000 people.
Murders with firearms (per capita).
US #8 with
There is no noble mob (Score:4, Interesting)
History has shown that whenever a rag tag army gets together during a militaristic dictatorship, it would be *behind* the dictator, and in fact often culpable of the worst of his crimes. When the at least disciplined professional troops or policemen would decline to be involved in an atrocity, a crazed volunteer bunch would be willing to lend their imaginative efforts.
The first thing such governments do is to turn people against each other. Letting people have guns is meaningless, because the gun owners are the ones who form the militias, and who gets rewarded by the government with the powers to keep the rest of the population in check. Armed mobs of civilians swept the Nazis into power, and then they organised clubs to train the youth in military tactics. Armed and anarchic mobs of students conducted the cultural revolution. Ordinary people, equipped with weapons the state handed out, conducted the Rawandan massacre. When was the last time there was a totalitarian state where the people would rebel - if only they had the guns to do so?
Until people stop being idiots who will buy into any and all propaganda they find, guns in the hands of the majority are just as likely to be tools of oppression as they are liberation.