Tag: Democracy

A Framework of Thought

There are several vital differences between totalitarianism and all the orthodoxies of the past, either in Europe or in the East. The most important is that the orthodoxies of the past did not change, or at least did not change rapidly. In medieval Europe the Church dictated what you should believe, but at least it allowed you to retain the same beliefs from birth to death. It did not tell you to believe one thing on Monday and another on Tuesday. And the same is more or less true of any orthodox Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim today. In a sense his thoughts are circumscribed, but he passed his whole life within the same framework of thought. His emotions are not tampered with.

Now, with totalitarianism, exactly the opposite is true. The peculiarity of the totalitarian state is that though it controls thought, it does not fix it. It sets up unquestionable dogmas, and it alters them from day to day. It needs the dogmas, because it needs absolute obedience from its subjects, but cannot avoid the changes, which are dictated by the needs of power politics. It declared itself infallible, and at the same time it attacks the very concept of objective truth.
 George Orwell

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Taxpayers’ Cash Paying for Politicians?

This is another of my earlier blogs – which seems quite forward thinking, two years after the fact 🙂

Not with my bleedin’ cash they ain’t!  We are now informed by our lords and masters that the way to avoid any more scandals like the recent cash for honours nonsense is to fund political parties from general taxation.  Let’s examine this proposition.  At bottom it means that the government will confiscate a sum of money from me and give it to a political party which I might otherwise not support.  It is a forced donation over which I will have no say.  Since I must work to get this money, what is being proposed amounts to the imposition of forced labour on behalf of the largest party, with no say in how that party should represent me, or what policies I am prepared to support – unless that is, I happen to be a supporter of that party.  It seems to me that this is in direct violation of the rule; ‘No taxation without representation,’ whcih, if I recall correctly, led to an insurrection by British citizens against the then government in the 1770’s and early 80’s, (1775 – 1783, to be exact.)
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Questioning the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949

I have given some thought to how I can promote my new political reference database and give my full support to the blogging content and community here at Definitely Not MyT (DNMT or ‘Dynamite’, as I fondly refer to the acronym!).

I therefore intend to post a short notice of new political blog content here, with a link to my site and a related blog for those interested in serious political debate about issues of UK political reform.

Any non-political blogging will be done here directly.

Release information:

New content has been added covering the UK Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 and related political reference information; for those interested in them and their content and their effects on the British Constitution.

The Blog: “Questioning the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949“, is now also available for comment.

The content of the blog and supporting site reference material can be found at:

http://wordpress.enfranchise.com

Political blogs will be copied over to this site after a week or so of exclusive preview and then will be available for general comment, discussion or ridecule. I will try to leave links thereafter leading to this location from  elsewhere after that. This means original content will still appear here, so you won’t miss it (as if, you’d care to! LOL!)

I intend to support this as the main blogging site for the ‘Dynamite’ community, waifs and strays. My site isn’t designed to compete or act as ‘Blog Central’.

Do We Have a Right to Self Determination?

The original concept of Athenian Democracy was to give the citizens of the City-State a say in key policy decisions of the nation.

Should we have that same right today? Or is it right that parliamentary democracy acts in what others believe are our best interests?

Let’s have your views.

I hope this makes for an interesting debate.

You can read background source material on the structure and methods of Modern Parliamentary Democracy and about the Athenian System on my http://wordpress.enfranchise.com political site resource.