Honestly…I ask you?
Constitutional Reform:
Recently, certain elements within Parliament have raised the topic of Constitutional Reform. They say now is the perfect time to have a spring clean, sweep away a lot of cluttered old practices and reinvigorate the democratic process.
I wholeheartedly agree. There has never been a more opportune moment in history to carry out such a program. But not by the current incumbents. That would be like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
Control Freaks:
We have spent most of our adult lives being told by the ‘powers that be’ that we need to constantly adjust to rapidly changing economic factors, to get with the program, and to stop trying to cling to the past. These admonishments don’t appear, however, to be applicable to our government with quite the same vigour and dedication as when they are applied to us in our daily lives. Most of the laws which we are expected to obey without question were formulated before many of us were even born (quite a few were passed at a time when most of us wouldn’t even have had the vote). When it comes to getting us to do as we are told and having our lives ever more stringently controlled, it seems that parliament has no end of resources, or determination.
Proportional Representation:
But just let the topic be one of reform (real reform, not half-baked concessions that just placate the noisy minorities and never amount to much) and you will immediately hear them bleating on about parliamentary protocols, and the importance of tradition. It’s been a century since women got the vote, but the politicians haven’t even managed to push through proportional representation yet (to be strictly fair, they haven’t even really tried).
I can tell you why, though. It’s because the current parliamentary system is run on party politics, and if we had proportional representation, the system of MPs being lobbied by interested parties (corporations, mainly), simply wouldn’t work. The sheer cost of feeding backhanders to hundreds of individuals and – come election time – financially supporting dozens of parties instead of just the main two parties would be most unprofitable. And yes, companies can – and do – donate to both sides of the political fence…they call it insurance. Thankfully these days, I’m pretty sure I won’t have a hard time convincing people that when our haphazardly elected so-called representatives get together with big business they can no longer be trusted to do the decent and honourable thing, rather than lining their own pockets at our expense.
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Excellent post and a realistic proposal.
Agree with all of it, with a small caveat re corporations and personhood. In the US, corporations have aquired the right of “free speech” and other peoples rights never intended by the original authors of the constitution. Treating an organisation as a single entity in court is imo not a problem, provided officers can be prosecuted and imprisoned where appropriate.
Great John. One convert already. Zerogov was never intended to be just a talking shop, so any suggestions about how we put this into practice as soon as possible? A lot more people are needed, of course, so we need to spread the word quickly (if for no other reason than for someone to come up with an even better proposal).